


Inheritance

by Hiiraeth (V_eritas)



Series: Regeneration 'Verse [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF!everyone, Bechdel Test Pass, Bisexual Hatake Kakashi, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Neglect, Coma Patient, F/M, Families of Choice, Genius Tsunade, Glacial Burn, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jinchuuriki Nohara Rin, Manipulative Danzou, Mental Health Issues, Nohara Rin Lives, Pre-Naruto Canon Era, Road Trips, Slow Burn, Stupid amounts of handholding, Women Being Awesome, Worldbuilding, fixing broken relationships, toddler naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2019-08-13 20:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 60,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V_eritas/pseuds/Hiiraeth
Summary: With Minato gone and Kushina's fate still uncertain, Kakashi and Rin navigate new responsibilities in the form of a toddler jinchuuriki who has no one else to depend on, disturbing new powers and ultimately, the quest to bring Senju Tsunade home.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Regeneration. For notes, art and more, check out my tumblr (@hii-raeth)! Enjoy <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been two years since Kyuubi attacked, killing Minato and leaving Kushina in a coma. Kakashi and Rin are still finding their feet when an unexpected opportunity to help the last two Uzumaki in town arrives.

_October 10th, two years after the Kyuubi Attack_.

* * *

The eye was acting up again. Kakashi could feel it burning through his body, making his legs go numb and his fingers tingle. He lay still in his bed and tried to remember how to breathe. Surely, the feeling would fade.

It didn't.

Kakashi had been dealing with nightmares for years, really. He knew the routine of waking up in the wake of terror only to find the rest of the world was still exactly as he had left it. He had learned how to calm his mind and body and return to the real world within a few minutes.

But Minato – Minato. Minato had complicated things.

"Mikoto-sensei," he had asked, a year and a half ago, idly plucking at the grass he had been sitting on," would you say there is a correlation between the Sharingan and emotion?"

"A correlation how?"

"As in, the more powerful the user's emotion, the more powerful the eye?"

She had looked surprised at the question, pausing what she had been doing for long enough to meet his eyes. "Emotion awakens the eye, that much you know. Some say it is also emotion that allows it to evolve. The more common belief is that it evolves through hard work, though."

"Your people aren't sure?" He had asked.

"Perhaps we were once, but information is easily lost as it is passed down through the generations," she had shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

He hadn't answered. He hadn't told anyone, in fact. Well, Rin knew, obviously, but she had seen it.

Obito had once bragged about how his clan's bloodline limit would grow stronger over time; how it started with only one marking but ended with three. Mikoto had explained the process again, in rather greater detail.

Neither of them had ever said anything about waking up from nightmares with the unsettling sense of certainty that their eye was about to swallow up the room.

It was a feeling Kakashi was becoming rather well acquainted with. It always followed dreams of Minato – particularly those where he could no longer see the difference between Minato, Sakumo or Obito, where they all merged together into one faceless being just slightly out of reach.

One time, Kakashi had reached the bathroom mirror in time to see the sharp geometric pattern that had appeared in Obito's eye. Just looking at it had made him violently ill. If he would push chakra into it, the eye would probably eat him alive.

He had tried to come up with solutions. For a while he would bandage his eye shut whenever he slept. Then he had tried not sleeping at all. Then, sleeping pills. Not one of them could seem to stop his chakra from burning through him and into the eye.

Rin thought he had to tell Mikoto. Kakashi thought that would probably land him on an operating table as they surgically removed the eye. He had made a promise to Obito. He would keep it, even if Obito's eye was somehow malfunctioning.

His stomach flipped nervously. His chakra roiled angrily through his body, almost like a separate entity. There was no way he could fall asleep like this. He threw the blankets off and got out of bed. 4 AM. Rin usually woke up at seven. Plenty of time.

Kakashi made no sound as he put on his clothes and slid open the window. He dropped down the two floors that separated him from the street and landed without so much as a sigh. The air felt cold on what little skin was exposed. There was no one in sight.

His body didn't seem to remember it was 4 AM. He moved with a reckless energy and reached the training grounds in no time flat. He breathed in deeply through his nose to try and calm himself down.

"Hatake, this is a tremendously stupid idea," he muttered. Then, he smiled. Obito had always been a proponent of tremendously stupid ideas.

He took position in the middle of the grounds and eyed one of the nearby training posts. He widened his stance and did a few stretches to warm up. An owl hooted. The ground smelled of recent rain and dirt. He couldn't sense anyone human nearby.

Right. He had waited for far too long already. He pushed his headband up and opened his left eye. Energy surged through him fast enough to leave him lightheaded. He blinked. "Okay, okay. Let's go." He clapped his hands together, and pushed chakra into Obito's eye.

What followed felt a little like unplugging his finger from a dam. The eye didn't just take the little sliver of chakra he had offered, no, it clawed at it greedily and then kept _pulling_. _Oh_ , Kakashi thought dizzily, _oh._

He could feel chakra rolling around him like a thunderstorm, pulling and pushing at the world like it was made of cardboard. His knees buckled. The training grounds seemed to disappear around him. The eye took and took and took –

"No!" He wrenched his chakra back into his body and forced his eye shut. He gasped for air. The world spun. The grass felt wet underneath his hands, but he couldn't remember when he had ended up on the ground.

He rolled onto his back. The owl had disappeared. His body felt so _heavy_.

Footsteps in the distance. Hurried ones, too. A voice, ordering someone to stand down. More footsteps, slowly approaching. He should probably care more about that. A face appeared above his own.

 "Shimura-san,"  he said, automatically. He was surprised he could speak at all.

Shimura Danzou's one good eye was wide in alarm. He looked pale in the moonlight. "Hatake," he croaked. "What on earth –" he blinked and beckoned someone over. A moment later there were strong hands helping Kakashi sit up. Some Aburame, by the look of him.

"I was on my way out the Council room when I sensed a disturbance," Danzou said. "Was that you?"

Kakashi blinked slowly. Did he even have a body anymore? He wasn't sure he could still feel it. "Ahh – I think so."

"You think so?" Danzou's companion asked incredulously.

"Yes. I can't feel my face."

Danzou was still staring. After a moment, he shook himself out of it. "Torune, please go on without me. I will make sure Hatake-kun makes it back home."

"But –"

"Just do it."

"Yes Sir."

Danzou turned back to Kakashi. "Do you think you can walk?"

Kakashi considered this. "I sure hope so."

Danzou snorted. "Not to worry. It's not an uncommon result of depleting a lot of chakra very quickly. You'll be right as rain. Come on." He held out his hand.

After a moment of wondering what on earth the hand was for Kakashi figured out what the idea was. He took the hand. Danzou was surprisingly strong for a crippled old man. A good thing too, because Kakashi's legs still felt like jelly. Not unlike his mind, come to think of it. This would all undoubtedly be very embarrassing once he could think again.

The trek back through the village was rather awkward and slow, between Kakashi's loopy limbs and Danzou's bad knee. Danzou was quiet at first. Thoughtful, perhaps. Or focusing on not falling on his face, like Kakashi.

"You're an ambitious young man, aren't you?" Danzou finally said.

Kakashi considered telling him his brain was still taking a dip into Lala land and this really wasn't the best time for him to talk, but that didn't seem like the kind of thing you said to an esteemed councilmember who had just saved you from hypothermia in the cold grass. "I can be," he said instead.

"Do you dream of following in your teacher's footsteps, perhaps?"

Kakashi considered it. "No. Not particularly." Perhaps he had once, before his father had died, and briefly afterwards because what better way could there be to save his family name? But it seemed like a childish dream now. Unreachable and utterly pointless.

"Then why do you fight? Why do you go to the training fields in the middle of the night and exhaust yourself?" Danzou's voice was deep and steady. Kakashi couldn't sense any of deceit or mockery.

"I have promises to keep," Kakashi said.

"Ha. Don't we all?"

"And people to save."

Danzou's brows furrowed and he went quiet again for another block or so. "Nohara-san?" He finally asked.

"She can do her own saving."

Another frown. Another pause. "Uzumaki-san," Danzou guessed. "And her boy."

"Someone has to." And why not him? Kakashi kicked at a pebble. He missed, but he didn't floor himself. He counted that as an improvement.

"How do you save someone who cannot be saved? You are no medic," Danzou sounded puzzled.

" _I'm_ not."

"No one in the village has been able to wake her. I'm not sure – oh. Ah." Danzou's expression shifted subtly. "I seem to remember you met Tsunade-hime a few years ago."

Kakashi's chin dropped to his chest. He hadn't meant to let that slip. "There's no point. I can't find her during my missions, not without completely breaking protocol. It's a pipe dream," he said. An old and familiar anger bubbled up within him. If the Hokage would just do _more_.

Danzou's grip on his arm tightened briefly. They had reached Kakashi's apartment block. "It doesn't have to be," he said unexpectedly.

Kakashi blinked. "What?"

Danzou's face was unreadable. "Go home and rest. Find me when you are feeling better. Then we will discuss the matter more closely."

Kakashi nodded numbly. "I – all right. Yes. Thanks."

Danzou smiled thinly. "No, thank _you_."

It didn't occur to Kakashi until much later that Danzou hadn't needed any guidance to find his address.

* * *

_11 AM_.

Usually, Konoha's military hospital was marked by a solemn calm, interrupted only in the face of emergency. It maintained this air of solemnity with a quiet pride; they were known throughout the world as one of the best hospitals that had ever existed, after all.

It figured that the only other interruption to that dignified quiet would be caused by an excited Uzumaki.

Naruto tried to squirm out of Rin's arms for the third time that day. Usually, he liked to screech or employ his little baby teeth in the pursuit of freedom, but this escape attempt was marked only by little grabby hands and an impatient little chorus of "Le'go, le'go!".

Rin tightened her grip on the toddler. "You see, Kushina-nee? Didn't I tell you he is just like you?"

Kushina didn't reply. She never did. The heart monitor beeped to the rhythm of her pulse.

Rin sighed. "The nurses have clipped your hair again," she said. With the toddler in her arms once again in control, she reached out and brushed her fingers over Kushina's forehead to swipe away the now short, red hairs. "I'm sorry."

Kushina looked strangely small without her trademark mane. The nurses said looking after her was easier this way.

"Mama!" Naruto crooned, and gestured at Kushina. Rin smiled. He didn't usually recognize his mother.

"That's right. Say hello to your mom, Naruto."

"Yellow."

"Well – that's close enough. I'll let it go because it's your birthday."

"Birthday!"

"Yup. You'll never guess what we got you."

"Mama!"

"Well, yes, but – actually, you'll find out when we get home. Did I tell you you get to stay with us tonight?" Rin smiled a little and pressed a kiss in Naruto's downy blonde hair. "Wish we could keep you."

"Kashi-nii and Rin-nee?"

"That's right, Kakashi will be there as well." Rin let out a long breath. "He came home from his mission just for you." Which wasn't a total lie, so.

Good enough.

Naruto pulled on his colorful T-shirt and started to babble, having lost interest. Rin ran a hand over his head and looked back at Kushina where she lay in the hospital bed. She looked so small. Diminished. "We're still looking. We'll get you out of this," Rin said softly. "I promise."

"Promise!" Naruto parroted.

 Rin chuckled wetly. "That's right. Say bye-bye to your mom now, Naruto."

"Bye-bye!"

Rin rose up slowly, hefting the toddler up with her. It was strange; as much as she hated coming here, she hated leaving even more. Two years of this. Two years of Minato sensei dead, and Kushina in a coma. Two years of watching the guilt eat at Kakashi. Feeling it gnaw at her own conscience.

Naruto was the only good thing that had come out of that day, but the parents who had so anticipated his arrival had never gotten to meet him. Instead he lived with a caretaker, a rather severe woman by the name of Ushio, because she was the only person both willing to and capable of looking after him.

The only person of age, anyway. Rin was only allowed to visit once a week. Kakashi was too, but he didn't go nearly as often. He liked Naruto, gave him piggybacks and everything, and like Rin he railed at the way some adults would speak about the boy – but Naruto looked so much like Minato.

Rin had been close with Minato. To Kakashi, Minato had been the closest thing to family he had left. He struggled, sometimes.

That, and he had been taking a lot of missions lately.

"We gonna have cake?" Naruto asked, and that was a seriously impressive sentence structure he'd made there. Rin smiled encouragingly.

"Yup."

Naruto cheered as they left the hospital.

* * *

"Got something for you," Kakashi announced, when Rin and Naruto entered the apartment. She could tell Kakashi had only just woken up from the way his hair stood on end, and the fact that he was dressed in a loose white shirt that just revealed a sliver of collarbone. There were dark circles underneath his eyes. He waved a scroll at her with one hand, and brushed Naruto's hair with the other in greeting. "Hey, big guy."

"Kashi-nii!" Naruto cheered, and then there were more grabby hands that necessitated a trade-off between the toddler and the scroll.

Rin cracked a grin as Naruto squeezed his arms around Kakashi's neck in what was either the world's smallest garrotte or a very enthusiastic hug. "What's this?" She asked, shaking the scroll.

"Open it."

Still bemused, Rin walked over to the kitchen table and unrolled the scroll. She gasped. "You – they finally gave their permission?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Had to browbeat them into it, silly mutts. Go ahead and sign it. Don't want them changing their minds before you do."

Rin gave him a giddy smile. "Oh, I will! I will – I've been waiting for this for ages."

"Gift for Rin?" Naruto piped up.

Kakashi snorted. "What's this, are you using full sentences now?"

"Senseses?"

"Sentences. Rin?"

"Hmm. He's starting to use two-to-four word sentences," Rin said, still looking at the scroll. She pulled out a kunai (from where it had been duct-taped under the table – really, Kakashi) and cut at her own thumb. "Just my name and fingerprints, right?"

"Lock off your hair, too. What? It's so they have your scent. I don't make the rules," Kakashi shrugged.

Rin hummed. There were only three other names on the scroll. Hatake Kakashi, Hatake Sakumo, and a slightly more faded one she thought said Hatake Sayuri. She bit her lip. "It's still kind of a family affair. Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Sign the damn thing."

"Damn thing!" Naruto cheered, because of course he did.

" _Kakashi_."

"Mahh mahh, sorry. Naruto, that's a bad word."

"Thing is bad?"

"No, it's – the other word, you know – you're riling me up, aren't you? You know which of those words is bad."

Rin chuckled and signed the last character of her name. The fingerprints were a little bit trickier to do, but Sanbi would heal the cuts in no time flat – it was hardly a reason not to sign a full-blown summoning contract. "Any idea who will answer?" She asked.

"A puppy, probably. They will want to test you. Pakkun and I have vouched for you, and they like you overall, but they can be a little stubborn. I think it's mostly for show at this point," Kakashi said, placing Naruto on the floor. "Look, there's some toys in the corner. You see them?"

Judging by the quick pitter patter of tiny feet that followed, yes, Naruto saw the toys. Kakashi sighed and appeared at the table. He raised one eyebrow slightly. "Well?"

Rin sighed theatrically. "Farewell, carefully cultivated luscious lock of hair," she said, and reaching up, cut a lock of hair from a place where it wouldn't be too noticeable. It wasn't particularly hard, with how long it had grown over the last year or so. She placed it on the seal, where it was promptly absorbed by the chakra paper.

Kakashi gave her an unimpressed look. "Carefully cultivated, really?"

"Well, unlike some I do actually brush it," Rin said primly.

"Ouch."

Rin bumped her shoulder into his. "Naruto's birthday party first? We can try summoning after."

His eye curved into a smile. "Sounds good."

Naruto was a very easy person to please, fortunately. He didn't mind that the cake was wobbly and the icing uneven, so in return they didn't mind when he splattered the cake with saliva trying to blow out the candle. He loved the presents too, even though they'd only been able to afford a few small things. But to Rin, the best part of the day was when the three of them sank down on the couch and shoved one of Naruto's favorite movies into the VCR. It didn't really seem to matter that Naruto fell asleep only a few minutes in.

"Did you find anything? Any hints at all?" Rin asked softly, turning the TV off.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe. I – "he sighed. "I did find a lead, on my last mission."

Rin nodded. "Okay." They had found leads before. It didn't have to mean anything.

"I think she may have gone to the land of Earth," he said quietly. "Obviously, it'll be hard for us to follow her there. But you know, she can't stay there forever." She could tell there was something he wasn't telling her, but she knew he would come through eventually. He always did.

One of Kakashi's hands came up and, after brief hesitation, landed awkwardly on Rin's head, as if it couldn't quite decide between a comforting ruffle or a – well. A slightly gentler sort of gesture.

He'd been getting a little bit more awkward around her, lately. After five years, Rin didn't really want to read too much into it. So instead, she just enjoyed the warmth and size of his hand, even if the positioning was a little odd.

That was Kakashi – never quite what she wanted him to be, but always what she needed.

"Ushio-san will come for Naruto first thing tomorrow," Rin said, changing the subject.

" Ushio-san is a dirty old crone."

"She's not that bad."

"She's not good enough."

"… No. No, she's not."

* * *

 

Perhaps the strangest thing about the past two years was that the majority of them had been utterly normal. Dull, even, on the days where grief didn't overrule Rin's mind.

The third Hokage had taken up office again. There had been no major conflicts as the war slowly petered out into an uneasy armistice – Kiri had kept its silence. Konoha continued as it always had. As though Minato's time in office had hardly taken place at all.

His proposition to raise Academy standards and graduation ages had been quietly and effectively ignored.

Rin still rarely saw her father. She still stayed with Kakashi, because the thought of living anywhere alone was stifling. Kakashi was still a little aloof, still spent too much time training with Mikoto, still spent too much time away on missions. Continued to grow as a shinobi and a team leader, when Rin's career had essentially been put on hold.

She hadn't left the village in almost a year. Kurenai thought she was going to retire and continue on as a civilian, instead. That she just hadn't quite made her mind up yet.

As if Rin ever could.

There were burn scars on her left arm from an incident six months ago, where she had nearly lost control of Sanbi. If not for Uchiha Fugaku, she would have.

Without Minato and Kushina, training properly was nigh impossible. Fugaku did his best, but between his clan, his job and his family, as well as the fact that he wanted to keep his involvement hidden, there weren't a lot of opportunities for them to meet up and train.

She still wasn't sure why he was so secretive.

"Speaking of status, did you apply to the Hokage yet about the jonin exam?" Kakashi asked, out of the blue. He slouched down on one of the kitchen tables, tucking a small and brightly colored book away into his pockets.

Rin blinked. "No – I haven't. I doubt he would let me."

"You won't know until you try. You deserve a promotion."

"What's the point if I can't do anything with it? "Rin said defensively. She didn't particularly care for this subject. If they were never going to let her out of the village, why bother trying? She would only be disappointed.

"Then prove to them you can do it," Kakashi shrugged, because that was his modus operandi; if people doubted him, he would just keep at it until he could prove them wrong. Because of his talent, he usually succeeded.

He had gotten his promotion to captain, last month. Youngest captain since Uchiha Kagami, because Kakashi could never resist the urge to beat a record.

But Rin was no Kakashi. She was clever, yes, and she had a natural aptitude for chakra control. She could also keep a cool head in most situations – or she had been able to in the past, anyway – and Sanbi had significantly boosted her attack power.

But she had never led a team, or won a solo battle (because Sanbi counted as a separate entity, dammit, so the word solo stopped applying the moment he got involved), and her control as a jinchuuriki was meager at best.

No one had expected her to take charge before. She had been a medic, licensed to give orders when necessary, but not expected to come up with battle strategies or lead teams.

Kakashi watched her mull it over, before he sighed and looked away. "All right. Different subject. Maybe you can try summoning?"

Rin brightened. Right, the contract. She had signed it for a reason, after all. She got up, careful not to disturb Naruto, and inspected the summoning contract." So, how does it work? Do I have to use the scroll?"

Kakashi huffed. "No, just –" He lifted his hands and ran through a series of seals, too fast for her to follow. "Like that."

Rin gave him a despairing look. "Kakashi… More slowly, please."

He rolled his eye and repeated the sequence, slow enough for her to follow. Then, he raised his left hand to his mouth and mimicked biting it. "Or you can use a knife and cut yourself."

"For those of us who don't have Inuzuka ancestry," Rin agreed, smirking. Her eyes lingered briefly on Kakashi's left wrist. Without his usual ANBU gloves, she could see the awkward scarring of the skin graft he had needed after his encounter with Kuriarare. She knew the scarring was worse on his shoulder.

She shook herself out of it. If he didn't mind, she wouldn't either. Or... She would at least try not to mind. Or feel too guilty about his shoulder.

She practiced the seal sequence he had shown her twice, each time a little bit faster, until she could replicate it perfectly. Then she grabbed the kunai she had used earlier and sliced the pad of her thumb until a drop of blood welled up. Her stomach did an excited flip. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Nothing happened.

Rin blinked. "I must have used the wrong dosage of chakra..." She trailed off uncertainly.

Kakashi frowned. "No, I could definitely feel _something_. I think..." He groaned unexpectedly and marched off to the bathroom.

Rin watched him go with a growing sense of befuddlement. She heard him say something else and then – a high-pitched yip followed. A moment later, Kakashi came marching out of the bathroom holding a young dog underneath its armpits. It was outrageously cute, with its oversized, pointed ears, large dark eyes and yellow and white coloring. "This is their sense of humor," Kakashi said, and nodded at the poor dog's lower body. It was dripping wet.

"Don't tell me…"

"They made her land in the toilet, yes. Har har, very funny."

Rin's hand flew to her mouth. The dog's little nose drooped sadly.

Kakashi held her out to Rin. "Go on, then."

Rin hurried forward and embraced the little dog, trying not to mind the toilet water getting in her clothes. "I'm so sorry. They didn't really like the idea of my entering a contract with you, so I suppose..?"

"Oooh, this is so embarrassing!" The dog whined. "They _told_ me I couldn't do it, and then I _did_ mess up." Her voice was high and reedy, and more than a little dramatic. "Now look at me!" She wiggled with her legs.

Rin stared at her. "Oh. Well. You could take a bath, if you like?"

Kakashi seemed to have different priorities. He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't your fault. They just gave you the wrong instructions. Always land close to your summoner, not feet away."

The dog flattened her ears in her neck, keening all the while. "I'm not very good at being a summon," she admitted. "I'm far too clumsy."

"I really need to have a chat with the boys," Kakashi growled, and stalked off.

Rin looked at the little heap of canine misery and willed herself to smile encouragingly. "You know what? Never mind all that. We've got a contract, you and I. My name is Nohara Rin. What's yours?"

The dog's ears perked up and her eyes went shiny. "Oh! Do you really mean that?" Her tail started to wag.

"Absolutely," Rin said.

"Oh, oh, oh!" The dog barked happily. "My name is Toboe! It's so very nice to meet you, Rin-chan!"

Rin smiled back. "It's nice to meet you too. Now," she clapped her hands together, "how about that bath?"

Toboe whined.

* * *

For all that Kakashi had wanted to become part of ANBU, the reality was nothing like the dream. Milestones he would once have considered victories had become little more than anti-climactic, over the past few years. He'd made it to jounin and lost a great friend. He'd made it to ANBU and lost the one man that position should have enabled him to protect. He could have been named Hokage, and still not be strong enough to actually change anything.

So his goal had become something entirely different: to find the one person capable of awakening Kushina _and_ teaching Kakashi how to minimize his greatest weakness.

Too bad Senju Tsunade was a traumatized drunk who never stayed in one place long enough for anyone to realize she was there. He could gather all the Intel he liked, take on a mission that would take him to her latest known location, and find she had already disappeared.

Even his dogs couldn't seem to pick up on her scent.

But now, perhaps he would finally have a chance.

Akino nosed at the palm of his hand. "You still mad at us, boss?"

Uhei pressed against his side. "We thought it was funny. Toboe is funny."

"But she's not a complete idiot," Pakkun said, stretching out across Bull's back. "She just needs a bit of guidance. We're not cruel. It's good practice for your girl, anyway."

"She's not _my_ girl."

Bull gave him a mournful look from where he lay on the bed.

Kakashi snorted." _Toboe_ had better not be an idiot," he grumbled. "Rin can't be compromised, you know that."

"Of course we know," Bisuke said, tongue rolling out his mouth as he panted. "We're not idiots either."

"You know, I used to believe that..." Kakashi trailed off, and grinned at the chorus of whines and angry yips this got him. He pushed himself up to his feet. "You made your bed, you sleep in it," he said. "Help Toboe, then I'll forgive you." A bit of tough love usually did the trick, where the dogs were concerned. 

The dogs gave a big collective sigh, but none of them seemed particularly surprised. "All right boss." One by one, they vanished into thin air as they returned to their home world. Only Pakkun remained behind.

"We wouldn't have nominated her if she didn't have potential," he grunted. "Her hearing is phenomenal. She'll make a good sensor when she's grown."

Kakashi sighed as well. "I figured. Still, warn me next time."

The pug nodded, and then followed his brothers into the void.

Kakashi padded out his bedroom and into the living room. Naruto was still fast asleep, and from the sound of things Rin was bathing her brand-new summon. Kakashi gave an amused snort. Poor Toboe.

Still, this lull in the day was just what he needed.

He stuck his head around the bathroom door. "I have to hand in my mission report. You mind if I pop out for a moment?"

Rin shook her head. "Don't worry about us, we'll be just fine."

Kakashi threw her a salute, pulled on his sandals and grabbed the mission report. The front door fell shut behind him with a bang.

From one floor above, the landlady screeched: "Careful with those doors! You break 'em, you buy 'em!"

Kakashi sighed. He put one hand in his pocket and ambled away, taking his time to observe the village on his way to ANBU headquarters. It was a quiet day out, not too warm or too cold. Not unlike the day Naruto was born – his left eye stung sharply. No, better not go there.

He didn't run into any familiar faces until he entered headquarters through the secret entrance.  Inuzuka Hige was at the desk, a smile appearing on his face as he saw Kakashi approach. He was Team Kakashi's official tracker, two or so years older than Kakashi, with a mess of long dark curls, brown eyes and cheekbones that would have made a sculptor weep. He was the kind of guy that would probably have a lead role in one of Jiraiya's novels if they ever turned them into movies. Kakashi gave him a lazy wave, not at all in the mood for his colleague's small talk, and moved on, making sure to speed up once he had rounded the corner so Hige wouldn't be able to catch him.

Handing in the papers themselves to the commander was the work of five minutes at most. Happy to have it over with, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned away from the commander's office to go and find  Danzou.

The unfamiliar smell of sharp spices and antiseptic hit his nose, pausing him mid-step. Speak of the devil. Shimura Danzou stopped midstride and blinked.

Danzou tilted his head slightly."Hatake-kun. What a pleasant surprise."

Kakashi gave him a slight bow, as his position demanded. "Shimura-san."

"How fortuitous that we should meet again so soon. The commander told me you have been promoted recently?"

"I have, yes. Thank you for your interest." He shifted impatiently.

Danzou smiled faintly. "Quite impressive. Well done, young man. I'm sure the esteemed Yondaime-sama would have been proud of you."

Kakashi almost bit his tongue. Danzou's words sat strangely in the air between them, more loaded than they should have been." Thank you, Shimura-san," Kakashi managed.

"Of course, Minato-kun was planning to change the regulations, wasn't he? Yes – yes, that's what I seem to remember. He disapproved of placing such young men in such grave danger. But I suppose Sandaime-sama disagreed," Danzou pursed his lips as if to commiserate. "Such a shame. Just be mindful not to let it hold you back." He shrugged slightly.

"Hold me back how?" Kakashi blurted out.

"Oh – well, don't you think it odd that Sandaime would take such risks with so promising a young shinobi? Sometimes, I worry – well, never you mind." Danzou smiled again, but it was devoid of humor. "That's what I am here for. I understand your concerns, and I think I have devised a way to deal with them."

Kakashi's chest felt tight. "You have?" He tried not to sound too excited.

Danzou reached into his robes and pulled out a mission scroll. "This is a rather rare type of mission, and I can only give it to you once," he said, pulling Kakashi to the side and lowering his voice. "I will find an alternative captain for your team while you are gone and explain it to the Hokage."

"While I'm gone?"

"One month. This scroll gives you permission to leave the village for a month. Like I said; it is a rare privilege indeed. I've had to pull some strings to receive it. Use it wisely," Danzou pushed the scroll into his hands.

Kakashi's heart quickened. A month wasn't long, but it was better than anything he had had so far. "Thank you. I will," he managed. "I – how can I repay you?"

Danzou smiled that thin little smile of his. "Consider it a favor. One day, perhaps, you can pay me back. But first, go and save your friend." He pushed the scroll further into Kakashi's hands. Then, he stepped away. "Now, if you'll excuse me... Best of luck to you."

Kakashi watched him go. His fingers tightened around the scroll. He had never heard Minato sensei say anything particularly good about Danzou, but then Minato sensei wasn't here to offer him any better solutions. Besides, Danzou was doing more to save Kushina than Sandaime himself. That had to count for something.

He slipped the scroll into his pocket. He would have to prepare carefully. What would he even tell Rin?

And what had Danzou meant, earlier? Hold him back? Take risks with promising young shinobi? What had he meant?

What was Sandaime playing at?

With Danzou's words still playing through his mind, Kakashi went home, feeling almost as lightheaded as he had the previous night

* * *

He woke up, once. Someone was shaking his shoulder. Called him, "Mizukage-sama!".

Was that his name? Was that who he was?

He couldn't open his eyes, or move his limbs. He couldn't do much of anything.

He wasn't scared either. He didn't know enough to be scared.

He just…

He just couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't at home.

His body moved. His right eye opened. "I'm on my way," his mouth said. "Leave me."

The someone, whoever he was, did.

His body stretched. It wasn't him, who moved it. It wasn't him, who clad his mismatched limbs in dark robes.

Perhaps, he thought, as sleep once again claimed him, that should have scared him more than it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for sequels? I'm really enjoying this universe, you guys. I'm setting up the plot in this chapter and it may be a bit exposition-y, but I hope you also like the fluffy interactions. Let me know what you think!
> 
> This story will probably be shorter than Regeneration, but if I'm still enjoying it by the time I finish I'll follow it up with more stories.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> Kushina is still in a coma. The shock of having the kyuubi extracted from her during childbirth only for half to be forced right back in was too big a strain even for her. Obviously, the kids are trying to find a way around this.
> 
> トオボエ Tōboe, lit. "Howling". Wolf's Rain, anyone? And yes, she is a corgi. Likewise, 'Hige' is an homage to the same series and means 'whiskers'.
> 
> Kakashi's OC ANBU teammates will not feature in the story beyond what you got in this chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

 

_October 11th._

* * *

 

Drugstores had to be some kind of evil conspiracy on the part of  iwagakure, intended especially to hinder people like Kakashi from being able to function properly. There was smell _everywhere_. Soaps, shampoos, facial creams, toothpaste, chemical compounds – even the makeup section offered its own array of chalky scents.

Kakashi felt mildly nauseous. He pulled the mask further over his nose, but it did little to block out the overwhelming sensory input. The faster he could get this done, the better. That was his usual drugstore strategy.

Perhaps it was the barrage of smells from that kept him from noticing her approach until it was already too late.

Rin caught Kakashi staring at two different shades of hair dye as if they held all the answers of the universe. "Errr," he said, eloquently.

Rin looked like she couldn't decide between laughter or genuine confusion. "Hi," she said. Next to her, Kurenai had a hard time keeping a straight face.

Kakashi blinked owlishly. Rin smelled faintly of Kurenai's perfume and chewing gum. She had said she would be at Kurenai's today. He had sort of assumed they would just sit around and, well, do whatever it was they did when he wasn't around. Evidently, that included shopping. Kurenai's idea, surely. Rin wasn't really the shopping kind. Was she? She never went shopping with him, which to be fair was a ridiculous thing to get indignant about.

A tall figure maneuvered himself into their isle. "Hey Rin, you really think shaving cream would – oh," Sarutobi Asuma paused midsentence. His eyes flicked from Kakashi's face to the packages in his hands. Kakashi could practically hear the gears turning in his head.

"Finally had enough of looking old, did you?" Asuma asked, only a little bit glib.

He shrugged. "Figured I'd go for a new look," he said dryly.

Asuma scowled and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "And you were thinking, what, brown or blond?"

"Mahh, bright purple seemed a bit much."

"Don't let Anko hear you say that."

Kakashi looked at packages again, then tossed the blond back onto the rack. Brown would be just fine. Might as well buy it now, since they'd already caught him in the store.

"Is it for a mission?" Kurenai asked, her ruby eyes curious. She had started to wear makeup recently, including a subtle hint of mascara and eyeliner that made her eyes pop even more. Asuma often seemed to have a hard time looking away.

Not Rin, though. Her laughter faded when she heard the word 'mission' and her eyes grew keen.

Kakashi smiled faintly. "If I told you, I would have to kill you!" He said cheerfully.

Asuma rolled his eyes again, but there wasn't as much fire behind it. "Right, right. Top secret?"

"Something like that." Kakashi shrugged again. "What were you guys doing here, anyway?"

The girls exchanged a look. "Just getting some essentials," Rin said. "Then we ran into Asuma."

Asuma grew faintly pink. Kakashi glanced at Rin's basket. Female hygiene products. Ahh, the true mystery of life. Ever since Rin had moved in, they seemed to have overtaken his bathroom. Well, overtaken – there was a discreet little box in the corner somewhere. He'd been quite shocked, at the ripe old age of fourteen. Now, he usually knew when to get Rin chocolate.

He hummed. "Better get to the counter then, right?"

They paid for their things and left the store, which left them in the awkward position of trying to figure out what to do next. Rin was friends with Kurenai, and Kurenai was friends with Asuma, and Kakashi was friends with Rin but not sure of where he stood with either of the others. He hadn't had an awful lot of time for socializing the past year. Rin had the house to herself most of the time.

"We – we could go down to the river? It's a lovely day, for October," Rin suggested. "We could get cinnamon buns at the bakery –" she blinked, then paled a little at her own suggestion.

Kakashi hesitated too. Not just for Rin's sake, although that played a part – the thing was that he hadn't exactly bought the hair dye to play hairdresser. No, he needed it. If he was going to leave the country, he had better do it as unrecognizable as possible.

The nearest bakery in town was _Nohara's Baked Goods_. An excellent little confectionary, even after the proprietor had lost a hand when his house collapsed in the Kyuubi attack. The proprietor, who was Rin's father. Who had _assumed_ the village would take care of her, after she was made into a jinchuuriki. They had only spoken a few times over the past few years.

"If you are sure," Kurenai said, a little concerned. "I know you and your dad aren't on great terms..."

Kakashi blinked in surprise, and then felt stupid for it. Of course she knew they were on bad terms; how else would Rin have explained that she had moved out of her dad's house? What excuse had she given Kurenai? A bad argument? _Irreconcilable differences_? He was being particularly slow today.

Rin squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. "I'm sure," she said, although when Asuma and Kurenai turned to leave she waited briefly to mutter, "He might not even be in today."

 Kakashi bumped his shoulder against hers. "You could wait outside. They won't even notice."

Rin's jaw clenched. After a moment, she nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

They left the bakery some fifteen minutes later, each of them with their own cinnamon bun, and headed for the river. Rin had been correct – her father hadn't been in. He didn't work full days anymore and usually had help in the store, but Rin was still visibly happy to be away from the bakery. The further they got, the more involved she got with Kurenai and Asuma's ongoing conversation. Kakashi, for his part, didn't much feel the need to participate. He was perfectly happy to amble after them and pretend, for a moment, that any of them were ordinary teenagers.

They weren't, of course. Asuma and Kurenai were just better at pretending.

They took off their boots and waded through the river, which finally restored Rin's smile. The water was cool and pleasant on Kakashi's skin, and he smiled along when Kurenai asked Rin to show Asuma some of her water jutsu. If he was going to let himself be distracted, it might as well be by a good show.

Rin was happy to comply. It wasn't long before water spiraled through the air around them, weaving through their legs or circling around their heads, or even briefly taking the shape of an animal or a star. A couple of civilians on the banks noticed and watched the display, cheering or clapping at a particularly good bits.

Rin looked radiant when she smiled. She didn't smile enough, Kakashi decided. He was almost willing to thank Sanbi for letting her do this now without fear of reprisal.

Still, when a couple of the kids from the waterside started to chase after her creations to catch them and Asuma laughed just a little bit too hard when one of them fell face first into water, Kakashi was more than happy to join the party with a five foot wave of his own.

What? He thought it was funny.

Rin was still grinning when she resurfaced. For a moment her eyes seemed to shine. They looked almost golden in the sunlight. Then her grin turned wicked and her next little water trick ended up in Kakashi's face.

Well. Fair enough.

The water fight continued only for a few more minutes, after which it began to occur to them that it was _October_ and nearly twilight and all of them were soaking wet. He was already starting to shiver from the cold.

"No fuss. You guys could come with me. I've got plenty of dry clothes, and we could make dinner after. The old man won't be home until late," Asuma said.

"Ahh," Kakashi wanted to say no and go home, to his own comfortable clothes and books and the vegetables he had intended to turn into a soup for tonight, but Rin looked so happy…

"That sounds wonderful!" She said, "thank you, Asuma-kun."

After a moment, Kakashi sighed. "Sure. Thanks for your hospitality."

Rin smiled even brighter. Kurenai gave him an approving look as well, which made him wonder what she would have them if he had rejected the offer.

Asuma gave them a lazy smile. "'Kay. Be warned, I'm not much of a cook. My sister tries to teach me, but it won't seem to stick. And now that she has her baby, I'm not sure she remembers I exist." He chuckled.

"Oh! She has already given birth?" Rin exclaimed, who clearly knew more than Kakashi did. Asuma had a sister?

"It's a boy. _Konohamaru_ , if you'll believe it. A little bit on the nose," Kurenai said, raising one of her eyebrows.

Asuma grinned. "An unsubtle name for an unsubtle kid. Man, he screams. But then I guess you guys are used to that, what with –" he trailed off a little uncertainly. "What's he called again?"

Kurenai elbowed him.

"Naruto," Kakashi said. "He never screamed."

Or cried, or fussed. He'd been a very quiet sort of baby. Imagine their surprise when his toddler personality came out the way it did.

"Right, yeah," Asuma said, a little uncomfortable. "That's what it was."

Given who his father was, Asuma probably knew just what Naruto was. Wouldn't be the first time the Hokage had slipped him more information than his rank entitled him to, even if Asuma was up for jounin as well. Kakashi would complain, except Minato had done exactly the same thing with him and Rin. Even someone like the Hokage needed someone to vent to, and after he had lost his wife to the Kyuubi Asuma was probably the only person he saw every day.

Asuma didn't talk about his mom much. Neither did Kurenai talk about her father. The cloud that seemed to hang over their conversation all of a sudden, however, made it abundantly clear that the way they had died was far from forgotten.

"It's not his fault," Rin said softly. "You have to know that." She didn't meet their eyes, which wasn't like her – Rin always made eye contact when she spoke to people – but then Kakashi knew exactly why she was avoiding them. Neither Kurenai or Asuma knew she was a jinchuuriki too.

Either way, her words seemed to startle Asuma. "Yeah – no, I know that," he said, sounding a little defensive. "He's just a kid."

Kurenai said nothing.

The mood remained a little downtrodden until they reached Asuma's home – better known as the Hokage mansion. Kakashi had only been inside the entrance hallway, but never any further. The place was, well, _grand_. It was more modern than most of the compounds, with stark paint walls and polished wooden floors. The walls were decorated with numerous _nindo_ – ninja mottos – from famous Konoha shinobi like the Nidaime. His read 心・技・体,  _Shin – gi – tai_. Mind, technique, body. It had been one of Kakashi's favorites as a child. Now, it just seemed cold.

As they moved further in, he saw photographs of the past Hokage and one of Sarutobi and his wife, some ten years younger, her holding a young Asuma while their teenaged daughter stood next to Sarutobi. A second picture showed that same daughter holding an infant and looking overjoyed. Asuma's sister looked a lot like him.

"Your dad is such a nice man, and yet I sometimes still have difficulty imagining him as a parent," Rin said, voicing Kakashi's thoughts.

Kurenai smiled. "You haven't seen him knitting sweaters yet, clearly."

"Pff. He's all right, I guess," Asuma said fondly, and led them to his room. It was a remarkably clean and organized space, for a teenage boy. It didn't seem much like Asuma, but then given that this was the Hokage's home they probably had cleaners or servants or something to do it for him. It even smelled a little like cleaning fluid. Asuma opened his wardrobe and tossed a hoodie at Kakashi. It was bright red. "Sorry, don't have any spare masks."

Kakashi shrugged, and turned his back towards the girls to unceremoniously pull his wet tank top off. He briefly hesitated over the mask, but then he saw a scarf lying around on the floor and picked it up. "This clean?" He asked, turning around just long enough to see that while Asuma was tossing clothes at them the girls were both watching Kakashi instead.

He frowned, and they both looked away as fast as lightning. Weird.

Asuma peered past them to squint at the scarf. "Oh, yeah. That's fine."

Kakashi turned his back towards them again and pulled off the wet mask as well. Then he pulled on the hoodie and wrapped the scarf around his face. Rin's mouth did that funny little quirk it did when she was about to laugh at him.

Kurenai and Rin shuffled off to the bathroom as Asuma quickly changed out of his own wet clothes. They hung everything up to dry and then went to the kitchen together.

It was awkward. Neither of them knew what to say.

Kakashi decided on, "Thanks." He pulled on the sleeve of the hoodie.

"You're welcome."

Another silence. The girls sure took long to change their clothes.

"Hey, you know I didn't mean it like that, right?" Asuma burst out suddenly. "About the – about Naruto."

Kakashi tilted his head, curious to see where Asuma would take this.

Asuma ran a hand through his hair. "I know he's just a kid. It's not his fault that he's also..."

"That he's also what?" Kakashi asked softly.

"Well, you know." Asuma hopped onto the counter. He suddenly looked much younger, even with the stubble he had managed to grow. "A... Jinchuuriki."

"That's just a small part of who he is."

"Oh, yeah, obviously. 'Course. And I mean, it wasn't even his choice," Asuma said, sounding jittery. "Dad says it's unfair to, y'know, judge anyone for it. They don't usually get to choose, do they?"

Kakashi managed not to wince. "No, they usually don't."

At least, he told himself, Asuma was trying. Many people didn't bother.

"You do have some food in the fridge, don't you?" Kurenai asked, as she and Rin entered the room. They were both dressed in rather oversized sweaters and what Kakashi was pretty sure were old pajama bottoms. Asuma was taller than Kakashi and still growing steadily. He had already outstripped his father with ease and was wider than even Gai in the shoulders.

Now, Kurenai was of pretty average height and posture, perhaps even on the tall side, but Rin...

Well.

Rin raised her hands. They were hard to see within her sleeves. She pouted at Kakashi. "Don't laugh," she told him, as she began to roll her sleeves up. Her feet looked tiny underneath the flannel checkered pants.

Rin was struggling to make it past 5'1.

"You should drink more milk," Kakashi said.

Rin punched his shoulder. Well, at least she could reach it.

He decided to save that thought to himself. Probably safer that way.

Asuma set them all to work on preparing their meal. It was a little weird to picture the Hokage puttering around in this kitchen, but apparently he did. "He really likes chocolate milk," Asuma said, by ways of explanation. Like that was any easier to picture.

The meal itself was all right, with mostly Kurenai and Rin keeping the conversation going as they ate. Every now and then Rin would throw Kakashi curious looks. She would have questions later – she was too sharp not to notice that his buying hair dye was unusual. If he really needed some for a mission, it would ordinarily have been provided for him. ANBU hardly went around sending its agents into drugstores whenever they needed a disguise.

The other two ought to know. It wasn't much of a secret amongst their peers that he was ANBU. People tended to notice when the boy considered to be the most talented of their generation seemed to stop taking missions. Perhaps they hadn't all connected the dots..?

Or, a more malicious little voice said, they just don't think of you often enough to wonder. The hand holding his chopsticks paused mid-movement as he considered it. He wasn't a particularly good friend, but he would have had to be a monster not to mind the idea that people might not care.

He pinched his thigh underneath the table and continued to eat. Self-pity was a hideous quality.

* * *

Rin hardly let Kakashi out of her sight all evening. Something was off about him, and she was willing to bet it had to do with that hair dye. He wouldn't stop drumming his fingers on the table during dinner, as if there was something he wanted to say or do so badly that it nearly cost him more energy to just sit still and have dinner with friends.

Rin wasn't a fool. She knew Kakashi didn't enjoy socializing the way she did. None of it came naturally to him, and he often struggled when he had to be in the company of people outside their team for more than an hour or so. The fact that he had today made her feel weirdly proud of him, even though she had done nothing to make him try.

Because she wasn't a fool, she also knew that although Kakashi might consider Asuma and Kurenai friends of the sort, he would never confide in them. Whatever he was planning existed only in _his_ mind. Rin suspected that she was probably the only person in the world who could get him to talk when he had a secret.

It would have made her feel sad for him, were it not for the fact that she could count the number of people who knew about her own status on one hand, one of whom was in a coma, one she never saw, and one who spoke only in terms of 'control' and 'safety' rather than being concerned for her well-being.

It made her stomach twist whenever she thought about poor Kurenai, who had no idea that one of her closest friends was a jinchuuriki. The thought of what she might do if she knew had left Rin sleepless often enough.

But with Kakashi, she could talk about – well, most things. Not quite everything, but very nearly. She trusted him. So, she couldn't help but feel she deserved a bit of trust in return.

She waited until they were back home.

"You should try summoning Toboe again, make sure she gets used to you –" Kakashi said, just as Rin asked: "Why are you going to dye your hair?"

They stood just inside the hallway, their boots still in their hands. There was no surprise in Kakashi's good eye. He sighed, and dropped his boots. When they hit the ground, he kicked them against the wall – a fairly typical bit of Hatake housekeeping – and nodded. "I was going to tell you," he said.

Rin folded her arms across her chest. He sounded… Uncertain. That was unusual for him. "I know," she said. "Will you tell me now?"

Something in his face lightened a little. "Come on, then. I don't really feel like explaining it in the hallway."

Rin followed him into her the kitchen, which was their usual location for discussions and, really, any conversation of a more serious nature. It was more comfortable somehow to remain standing when they might disagree. Rin realized she was still embracing herself and reluctantly let go. She was sure he could read her worry on her face anyway.

Kakashi pulled out the package of hair dye. "Do you know how this stuff works?" He turned the box around in his hands before opening it and pulling out several items. "There's gotta be some kind of instruction manual, right?"

"There has to be," Rin agreed. "But you haven't explained –"

"We've got an opportunity to find her," Kakashi interrupted her, briefly meeting her eyes. His voice came out uncharacteristically strong, as though a fire had been lit inside of him and fueled the much slower near-drawl he had been cultivating for the past two years.

"Her… Do you mean Tsunade?" Heat rushed through Rin's body when he nodded, along with blinding, stupid hope. "Really? How?" It was too good to be true. It had to be.

"I've got permission to leave the village for a month so I can go look for her. With the lead I got earlier, and the dogs... I stand a pretty good chance." Kakashi rocked back on his heels, his brow furrowed a little in what she recognized as excitement. Oh, he couldn't wait to leave, could he?

Well, neither could she. "We. We stand a pretty good chance," she said, balling her fists.

Kakashi faltered. "But – are you sure – they won't allow you to –"

"I'm sure. I'm not staying behind ever again, especially not for this. I couldn't help when the Kyuubi attacked, but I can help now. And, and frankly," she flushed red, "I-I'd like to see them try to stop me."

Kakashi blinked back at her. "Huh. You'd think at some point I would stop getting surprised when you go all rebel on me, but this isn't it."

Rin flushed deeper. "I will rebel when their rules are dumb," she muttered, and pushed down the instinctive shame and desire to make herself smaller than she was.

After a beat, Kakashi began to chuckle. He didn't have a very dignified or charming sort of laugh, and after two years of living with him Rin had begun to associate it with him reading his ridiculous little books. She flushed even deeper and resisted the urge to laugh along. She liked his dumb laugh.

"Mahh, if I can keep recommending you for the jounin exams it would be kind of hypocritical to say you can't come now, wouldn't it?" He said, running a hand through his hair. It had been a bit limp after their water fight, but now it stood up again in its usual impossible peaks.

Rin pushed her chest out. It didn't do much to make her look more like jounin-material, but it made her feel a bit tougher. "Well, quite," she said, sounding nowhere near as confident as she wanted to. She cleared her throat. "Now, that hair dye – what on earth are you going to do with it?"

"It's a disguise," Kakashi said. "I can't be sure that I'm in any bingo books, but if I am…" He shrugged. "The lead led to Earth Country. We may not be at war anymore, but they will hardly take kindly to any Konoha shinobi crossing their borders."

Rin blinked. "Yeah, that's a good point." She tilted her head a little and tried to picture Kakashi with brown hair. It was a weird image. "But what about –" everything else, she didn't say, "– your eye?"

He narrowed his good eye out for a little, as if he could guess what she had been about to say. "Civilians have eye patches, right?"

"I... Suppose."

"Or scars."

"Generally not scars that look like that," Rin said, a little dubious. She pictured his scar in her mind, as it stretched from below his cheekbone to above his eyebrow. It had paled but the skin around it seemed oddly stretched, particularly around the cheekbone. After four years Rin had grown used to the sight, but there was no mistaking it for anything other than a battle wound.

She tapped a finger to her chin. "You'd need some kind of makeup to cover it up," she said, ignoring the trepidation on his face. "I'm sure we could find something. And contact lenses, perhaps, for me. And I'll forgo my markings," she added, brushing the purple marks on her cheeks. She would feel a bit naked without them, but that was all right. "And your mask. It'll have to go," she said sternly.

Kakashi grimaced. "Figures masks wouldn't have caught on with civilians," he muttered. "I can get a scarf."

Rin managed not to sigh. She loved it when he didn't wear his mask. He had a lovely face. "Did you get some clothes, too?"

"I have some from a mission a while back. They will do."

"Then all that's left is coming up with a cover story," she said.

"Oh, that's easy," Kakashi said, "when my hair is brown we could pass for siblings, if you don't look too closely." He smiled brightly and, humming under his breath, moved past her towards his bedroom.

He didn't notice Rin's dismay at all.

Siblings, _I ask you_ , Rin sighed.

 _Oh kid, don't I know it,_ Sanbi rumbled, commiserate, and in doing so nearly sent Rin jumping through the roof in surprise.

xXx

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _How we could be heroes/just for one day_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _I/I can remember/standing/standing by the wall_
> 
>  
> 
> _and the guns/shout above our heads/and we kiss/as though nothing could fall._
> 
>  
> 
> _And the shame/the shame is on the other side/_
> 
>  
> 
> Help I can't stop listening to Peter Gabriel's version of 'Heroes' bc what a Regeneration mood.
> 
>  
> 
> I got some bad news this week so comments are extra welcome!
> 
>  
> 
>  


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been having a really shitty day following a really shitty week following, frankly, a really shitty year. In short : every comment is more than welcome.
> 
> I hope you've been having a better time of it.
> 
> On a more cheerful note, I like how this one turned out!

"Where you going?" Naruto's voice was all curiosity and no trepidation when he saw Rin's backpack. He was already dressed in his pajamas for the night, and his cheeks were rosy with sleep.

Rin's smile was a bit wobbly as she crouched before him and ran a hand through his soft hair. Behind him, Ushio watched their interactions like a hawk. Even Kakashi's stony glare seemed to do little to scare her off, as though she wanted to be sure they wouldn't run off with either her young charge or any of the horribly tacky wall decorations that littered her hallway.

"We're going on a little field trip," Rin said, looking into Naruto's bright blue eyes. Her eyes stung a little. "You don't have to worry, but it means we might not be able to visit you for a while."

Naruto frowned. He reached out and fiddled with her sleeve. "A while?"

"A month," Kakashi said, more for Ushio's benefits than Naruto's. The little boy didn't understand time measurements yet.

"It'll be over before you know it, I promise," Rin said. "Just like when Kakashi goes away sometimes."

Naruto looked down. "Don't like it," he mumbled.

"When we get back, we'll ask Ushio-san if you can come and sleep over at our place, how does that sound?" Kakashi said, which was a fine bit of bribery. He was still glaring at Ushio, whose face twitched and hardened. Then, she gave a curt nod.

Rin resisted the urge to sigh. Ushio wasn't a bad person by any means, but Kakashi seemed unable to see her as anything but. She was hardened by the shinobi life, yes, and by the loss of her husband and her eldest son, but she wasn't cruel. She kept Naruto fed and clothed, and never once talked to him as though he was the demon himself. She had even made an effort to teach him colors and shapes.

She didn't give him as much affection as he needed, though. Naruto was a very affectionate child. Sometimes, when he was with Rin and Kakashi, he would stand close to either of them and grab their clothes with one little hand in an obvious bid for affection, but never quite dare to meet their eyes.

Kakashi's obvious dislike for Ushio's practices made Rin wonder if he had had similar experiences in the orphanage where he had briefly lived after his father's death. If nothing else, he was the shining example of how it might affect a child to not have the love and support of a parent. He was self-aware enough to know it, too, Rin thought.

She brushed Naruto's cheek again. "Would you like that? You could stay a whole day, and then a night, and then the morning after too."

He nodded slowly. He was still pouting, and perhaps he would cry a little when they left, but he was still a two-year-old with a very limited capacity for either remembering sad encounters or understanding the passage of time. By the time they came back, he would hardly understand they had been gone for much longer than usual. It was a bittersweet comfort.

Beside her, she could hear Kakashi take a deep breath before he too crouched down and gently flicked Naruto's nose. He gave him his brightest smile, the one that made his eyes crinkle and Rin's stomach flip. "We'll have all the cookies and ice cream you can eat," he promised.

More bribery. He was a _terrible_ enabler.

 Ushio looked mildly scandalized. Naruto cheered loudly.

Later, after several very tearful hugs in which Naruto managed to smear snot and tears all over Kakashi's shirt – but blessedly, not Rin's, which earned her a glare from Kakashi – the two teenagers left.

"We'd better get this right," Kakashi said softly. He kicked at a rock, hands in his pockets, and for a moment he looked just like the sullen kid he'd been back when Obito was still alive. "He depends on it."

Before she could really question it, Rin reached out and squeezed his elbow. "We will. And if not this month, then some other time. We will take care of him."

Their eyes met. After a moment, Kakashi nodded. "It's a promise."

By unspoken agreement, their next stop was at the hospital, where they held Kushina's hands and made her that very same promise.

* * *

Their cover story, much to Rin's covert disappointment, was that they were twins looking for their aunt after they had lost their parents in a tragic and entirely unexpected accident.

That was closer to the truth than either of them liked, but Kakashi said that that would only make it easier for them to uphold the lie.

They left early in the morning so that there wouldn't be anyone in the streets to recognize either of them. The guard let them through the gates without too much fuss, content just to see their IDs and permission slip. For once, the secrecy surrounding Rin's status was a boon.

Still, Rin's nerves plagued her for the first fifty-odd miles. Part of her kept expecting a patrol to appear out of nowhere and send them back, but it kept not happening. It helped that Kakashi led her past one of the lesser used routes to the north and regularly made sure to scatter their tracks, but chances were no one had even realized she had left.

Rin just hoped that wasn't too naïve.

They made camp just as twilight set in, near the foot of a monumental mountain. The terrain was gorgeous, this far north-west into Fire Country, with deciduous trees slowly making place for pine as the mountain ranges steadily rose in height.

Rin was overjoyed to finally see something other than Konoha's buildings, which were familiar and beloved but also stifling if they became the only thing you ever saw. The fresh mountain air felt delicious in her lungs, and although her legs ached a little from the sudden exercise, she was glad to be moving.

She was still smiling when she built the campfire, during twilight.

Kakashi caught her eye and raised his eyebrows a little. "Glad to be away, huh?"

"Oh yes, very much so."

"It'll be good for you." Kakashi shrugged off his back pack and tossed her a packet of dried meat. "Nothing too exciting to eat. In case you've forgotten mission rations."

Rin scowled. "I have not, unfortunately."

They settled into a comfortable silence as they rested their weary legs and ate. Kakashi called up two of his dogs to stand watch. The dogs curled up against them, their eyes and ears still alert. Their warm bodies and trademark dog scent felt comforting as forest around them slowly grew darker.

"What do we do, if Sanbi comes out?" Kakashi asked suddenly, his eyes on the fire.

Rin stilled. It was a reasonable question, of course, but it highlighted her lack of control over the demon. She looked down at her hands. If she pushed up her sleeves, she would be able to see the dark seals covering her skin. They wouldn't have been visible, if her seals hadn't needed so many amendments to turn her from a time bomb into a permanent container.

"I... Brought these," she said eventually, pulling two pieces of paper from her backpack. "They're the last seals Minato sensei made for me." She handed them over.

Kakashi held them carefully between his hands, following one of the ink lines with his finger. "I remember these. You use them to train, right? Before..."

"Yes. They should dampen Sanbi's chakra for long enough for you to knock me out."

Kakashi's eyes flitted over the seal. "It's a very clever design. I'm not sure, but… I think, with some time, I should be able to replicate them. Why didn't you give them to me before?"

Rin winced. "I'm sorry."

Kakashi sighed. "Mahh, that's not really an answer," he said, steady but gentle.

Rin wrung her hands together. "It's… It's silly. I suppose I didn't want to give them away, because... They're one of the last things sensei gave me before he..."

Kakashi's eyes softened. He rummaged around in his waist pack and pulled out a familiar looking three-pronged kunai and held it into the light. "I get that." He put it back into the pack.

They slept uneasily that night.

* * *

Once they crossed the border of Grass Country, they quickly checked into an inn to undergo their transformation.

Rin pouted at herself in the mirror of their designated room. The contact lenses were powder blue. They made her look like her father. She sighed and glanced to the left, where Kakashi was inspecting himself as well.

Well, his hair was brown, all right. The color had taken well. It had also inexplicably caused his hair to curl up. Kakashi pulled at one of the curls and frowned as it bounced back. "Is this supposed to happen?" He grimaced.

"Not… Really, no."

"Hnn."

"Your hair has never been very good at obeying the laws of nature," Rin tried. She had to fight not to smile.

"Not helpful."

"On the upside, it does make you even more unrecognizable."

"I look _weird_."

"... By most people's standards, you look more normal now than before."

"Oi!"

He lightly swatted at her head. Rin grinned and dodged the blow. "Maybe I should curl my hair as well," she added.

Kakashi squinted at her. Between the hair, the eyepatch and the uncovered face, Rin suspected even their friends wouldn't recognize him. "I feel like you're having me on, somehow."

"I would _never_."

"You know, you may have convinced people you are some kind of sweet and innocent girl, but deep down, you're as evil as I am."

Rin's face heated up at the word 'sweet', but she was determined not to let on. "Well, out of the two of us, you're not the one carrying a demon around," she said.

Kakashi stared at her. "Did you just joke about Sanbi? You just joked about Sanbi."

All right, now she was blushing. "Well, if I don't, who will? Anyway! We need fake names."

Kakashi stared at her for a little bit longer before snorting and turning back to the mirror. Even his scar was covered up, thanks to a particularly determined foundation (doubtlessly intended for women of a certain age trying to cover up their wrinkles). He frowned. "Sukea," he said, and nodded at himself.

Now it was Rin's turn to stare. "Su- Sukea. You – _what_."

"You can be Kurou."

" _Neither of those are names_."

"Technically, neither is _Kakashi_."

"That's a terrible excuse."

"Blame my parents."

Rin decided now would be a good time for the earth to swallow her up, or something. Even that would be less absurd than this conversation. "I'm not going to use _Kurou_. That's not even a girl's name."

"So you admit that it's a name," Kakashi said obtusely.

The need to cuff him over the head grew. "All right, _Sukea_. So our 'parents' are into weird names. How about... How about I go with Rei?" She said, just barely managing to keep her hands to herself.

"That's not a weird name."

"I'll use the kanji for 'ghost'."

"Okay, that's a little weird."

"Rei and Sukea... What about a surname?" Rin asked.

"Nobe," Kakashi said, after a moment's thought. "Your last name means field, my last name means field, Nobe means field. It makes sense."

"No one would ever guess it's us," Rin deadpanned.

Kakashi beamed.

* * *

Traveling through Grass Country was nowhere near as pleasant as traveling through Fire Country had been, and not just because they had had to seal up their shinobi clothes and headbands and trade them for plain civilian garb.

No.

Rin and Kakashi looked at the endless plains and waving grass and could remember only fighting, and long nights spent in terror of being discovered by the enemy whenever Minato sensei was away.

It was also the country were Obito had died.

They wouldn't have to travel past Kannabi Bridge, which was a small blessing. Still, they were both quiet and borderline morose, even when they passed by small farming villages which were finally, visibly, recovering from the war. Children were laughing again, and the adults could do their jobs without having to worry about running into any shinobi. They weren't quite at the point where they would be happy to greet strangers yet, but Rin knew it was only a matter of time. The world was kinder here, now that the war had ended.

Sometimes, though, that was hard to remember. Particularly in the forests, which unlike northern Fire Country's largely deciduous foliage, more closely resembled the Giant's Forests to Konoha's South, known for their humongous plant and animal life. Even the mushrooms were the size of houses. If she focused, she could sense the enormous quantities of water running through the trees, like the forest's lifeblood.

"Legend has it one of the first shinobi to have ever existed came here, and infused the earth itself with his chakra," Minato sensei had once told them, back when Obito was still alive and Kakashi still a stranger. "As a result, the plants and animals just grew and grew and grew, until they were strong enough to survive just about anything. Woods like these are dangerous, and you must always remain on guard when you find yourself in one."

And they had been on guard. It just hadn't been enough.

Even the dogs were uneasy in the forest.

Nonetheless, Rin summoned Toboe. "I want you to listen very carefully," she said, when the little dog appeared. "I'm not expecting any enemies, but the creatures here are large and dangerous. It will be good practice for you to try and detect them before they detect us."

Toboe nodded, her little face very serious. She didn't speak at all, and even the other two dogs gave her approving looks when she began to sniff around, her large ears pitched forward.

"You should train genin someday," Kakashi said. "I bet you would be good at it."

Rin smiled. "I – actually, I'd been thinking I might teach at the Academy. Obviously I would need some training, and the Hokage's permission, but if they're not going to let me take missions very often… It would be nice to have something to focus on."

Kakashi blinked. "That – yeah. I guess – that would be great," he said, awkwardly.

Rin laughed. "We don't all want to be Hokage," she said, smiling at him. "Or ANBU commander, or whatever it is you're aiming for. A smaller ambition is still ambition."

He floundered for a moment. "Uhh, yeah – sure. I guess you would have gone into the hospital, otherwise..? Become a surgeon, or something?"

Rin's smile faded a little. "That was my dream, yes."

"You could still go into research," Kakashi said hesitantly.

Rin shrugged. "Eventually, perhaps. What I really want is to help people directly. Teaching children would be a pretty good way to do that, don't you think? If I could influence the next generation even a little..."

They looked up as a flock of birds dove out of the branches overhead and winged away under loud protest. Toboe was at the foot of their tree, barking enthusiastically.

"Not... Quite what I had in mind," Rin managed.

Kakashi snorted, and then whistled sharply. His dogs turned their heads to look at him only once, before they trotted over to Toboe and started talking to her in soft tones. "They will mentor her a little," Kakashi explained. "Teach her how to distinguish the sounds and scents of harmless wildlife from the big and dangerous ones."

Rin grimaced. "I suppose I can't teach her that."

"Well, there's no reason why she shouldn't have more than one teacher."

Rin smiled. They kept moving.

"I'm not really aiming to be Hokage, you know," Kakashi said after a while.

"I know."

"I know people have… _expectations_ of me, as the... so-called prodigy of my generation. Especially since sensei died."

Rin turned her head to look at him, but he was on her right, and therefore harder to read even without the mask. She thought about it. Sandaime would be sixty, soon. He would need replacement before long, but how many people were in the village right now who were actually suitable?

Only the Sannin could match him for strength, and they were scattered across the earth – and no one would trust Orochimaru, after his laboratories had been found last year.

"I'd like to say you can be anything you want, but I don't think you would believe me," she said.

He shrugged. "Probably not."

"If it helps, it's not like they'll make you Hokage unless you're really ready for it."

"You mean, when I'm not known for scaring off genin and terrorizing teammates?" He looked at her long enough to show her his raised eyebrow.

Rin laughed. "You haven't terrorized your teammates in, oh, at least a week."

He smiled back. He had faint dimples. "It won't matter either way if I don't become strong enough. And I don't know if I will."

Rin raised her eyebrows. "If you don't find a way, I don't know who will."

"You have too much faith in me," he replied, but it didn't sound as lighthearted as before.

Perhaps he really was worried he would never be strong enough. How hard it had to be, to set yourself such impossible goals and yet be reluctant to take on the consequences that such power might bring with it.

"You don't have to be the best," Rin said. "Screw expectations."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully. "... I don't really want to be some disgraced legend's mediocre kid," he admitted. "If I... Show people what I can do, but still follow in my father's footsteps, perhaps they'll see that he was..." He shrugged. "It's a stupid ambition."

"You want to change people's minds about your father," Rin realized.

"Yup. And good luck with that," he smiled wryly. "People _hate_ that guy."

Rin's stomach twisted at hearing him describe his father in such a way. She didn't really remember Hatake Sakumo, but she knew Kakashi had adored him. That, and anyone willing to go to such lengths for other people had to have been a good person.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"'S not as bad as it used to be. Either way, I'm used to it."

 _The only reason it's not as bad as it used to be is because he died_ , Rin thought. Out of sight, out of heart. It made her heart ache.

"It's not stupid. Your ambition. But, you shouldn't have to prove anything to them," she said.

"Yeah, well. They're still my neighbors," Kakashi said, a strange dark humor creeping into his voice.

Before Rin could respond, one of the dogs, who had gone ahead of them, gave a long howl. The sound was eerie in the otherwise quiet forest, and Toboe quickly scarpered over to Rin's side to press against her leg. Her little body shook.

The two shinobi tensed as soon as they heard the noise, casting out their chakra to sense for other presences. Neither of them were sensors, but between Rin's chakra control and Kakashi's sharp hearing and sense of smell, they could sense a pretty decent area around themselves.

"Animal," Kakashi whispered. " _Big_."

Toboe keened softly.

They didn't move, their every sense focused on the forest around them. The lack of bird calls now seemed like an obvious giveaway, but Rin was sure they had still been there a mere minute ago.

Rustling leaves to the right set them both on edge, but it was only one of Kakashi's dogs, an older female. "It's a bear, roughly the size of Kurohiko," she said, in hushed tones. Who or what Kurohiko was apparently didn't warrant an explanation. "She's caught onto your scent ready."

"Any cubs?" Kakashi asked. The dog shook her head.

"Kurohiko?" Rin asked.

"Big name in the dog world. Not as big as sensei's toads, but bigger than any normal bear," Kakashi replied. "Chakra sensitive, too. Let's keep moving, but very quietly. Ao, lead the way," he added, nodding towards his dog.

Ao could move faster and quieter on her four legs than either the humans or Toboe, but she paced herself enough that they could keep her within sight. Kakashi cast a light illusion that would make the light reflect differently around them, making them much harder to see.

The first thing Rin heard as they neared was the bear's breathing, loud and a little irregular as she sniffed her surroundings. Next to Rin, Kakashi wrinkled his nose as if he was smelling something particularly foul.

They could probably beat her, if they really had to, but the chances of accidental injury or discovery by other shinobi were too great. That, and the bear wasn't malicious – she was just a bear, rummaging around in her forest. There was no need to kill her.

A branch snapped to her left, as loud as an explosion. Rin spun on her heel , chakra at the ready -

Toboe hunched her shoulders in an attempt to make herself as small as possible. Her tail was tucked firmly between her legs.A broken twig sat awkwardly between her paws.

The bear snorted loudly. Her dark eyes pierced through the shadows, as if they could see straight through Kakashi's illusion.

She sniffed again, curious. Kakashi's right hand twitched near his hidden kunai holster.

The bear snorted again , and then bent her head down and resumed her meal.

"A bee's nest," Kakashi whispered ."I didn't smell it right away." 

Ao moved again, and the shinobi followed, Toboe tucked neatly into Rin's arms. 

They passed the bear by without too much trouble, after that. Ao knew how to guide them past her without too much of a detour, so they were quickly under way. They camped at the border of the forest, where Kakashi made sure to burn the papers Danzou had given them and check over their fake identifications instead.

They weren't a day too late; they reached Kusa territory not long after, and were stopped several times on the road by patrolling Kusa shinobi who asked them for their papers. Unlike Konoha or the other bigger villages, Kusa didn't directly cooperate with their country's Daimyo, so their protectorate didn't encompass the entirety of their country. Civilian immigrants were common enough, so they were allowed to keep on moving every time.

 There was even one particularly friendly young chunin, barely five years older than them, who insisted on escorting them through a number of pastures that were known for being bandit terrain. He chattered to them all the while. Rin thought it was sweet, and was happy to practice her fake background story by answering his many questions. Kakashi, if nothing else, seemed to enjoy playing the mulish teenage brother trying to look out for his sister. The  chunin even waved them goodbye as they split ways, unaware that the two harmless teenagers he had just escorted could have beaten him quite easily. 

Now that they were forced to move at a civilian pace, it took a lot longer to cross Grass Country. Kakashi sent his second dog ahead to scout the nearby towns and hopefully bring in some Intel. Toboe watched all the proceedings with curious eyes. She seemed to find the human inns of particular interest, though, and had a hard time understanding that no, the hot springs were not intended for canine use. Out of sympathy, Rin didn't go either. Needless to say, Kakashi hadn't even considered a visit.

It took them another two days to reach the border of Earth Country, and when it they did it seemed almost anticlimactic. The mountains looming large and blue in the distance had been enemy territory, up until recently. They still _felt_ like enemy territory.

Somewhere out there lay Iwagakure, a name they had learned to hate from an early age. It would feel different, after this. They would run into people who called this land home and thought of Iwa as their protectors. Not bad people, just people.

Rin was almost glad she hadn't had that insight during the war.

Just up ahead, she could see the first set of guard towers. She leaned towards Kakashi until she could feel his arm against her own. He felt warm and reassuring. He bumped her shoulder with his and smiled faintly.

"We've waited for this for two years," he said softly. "Let's finish this."

Rin smiled back as warmth surged through her. There wouldn't be much time to relax in the upcoming month, but with him by her side she knew she would be alright.

"Let's give Naruto his mom back," she said.

As the sun started to set, the mountains cast deep shadows across Earth Country.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IDEK.
> 
> my experience with two-year-olds is limited to babysitting one who, while terribly cute, wouldn't stop crying until I put her to bed. Unsurprisingly, that didn't give a very clear idea of her development level. Whatever you see here is based on what little I know of where a two-year-old should roughly be at, verbally and emotionally. I'm sorry if I got it completely wrong!
> 
> In case you're unaware, 'Sukea' is literally how Japanese people pronounce 'Scare'. 'Kurou' would, similarly, the equivalent of 'Crow'. Scarecrow. Yeah. If they ever have kids, Kakashi is not allowed to name them.


	4. Chapter 4

Earth Country was stiflingly hot.

Not the kind of heat that would strike Konoha in the midst of summer, accompanied by thunderstorms and intense humidity, but the kind of dry, constant warmth that made Rin feel as though she was walking around inside one of her father's bread baking ovens.

This, combined with the increasingly mountainous terrain, made traveling hard work even at a civilian pace. She was glad she had brought knee-length leggings for underneath her shorts so that at least her shins were bare. They were unscarred so they were unlikely to draw attention, but Rin was afraid to hike up the leggings any further: about halfway up her thighs one of the seals Minato had placed to stabilize the original Sanbi seal circled around her legs and up around her pelvis, with the core being just around her navel. The second and original seal was on her abdomen, and the third ran from the center of her chest up across her collarbones and, when it was active, even around her throat.

In short, Rin's skin hadn't seen much of the sun lately. She hadn't dared to risk it.

Kakashi had brought civilian shorts. He looked particularly awkward in them, with his slightly knobby knees and the sparse few hairs that had started to grow on his calfs and shins. Together with his backpack and slightly ridiculous civilian t-shirt (it read "Bite Me" in big bold letters) he was about one pair of white socks and a Polaroid camera away from looking like an overzealous tourist.

The border guards had had quite a lot of fun with it, actually. Which was good, because so long as they laughed at them they wouldn't pay too much attention to Kakashi's slightly overlong canines or Rin's chakra presence, which even with the best of intentions could only be hidden up to a point.

The landscape around them consisted largely of reds, oranges and yellows that painted the jagged rock formations in warm and deceptively reassuring colors. There were very few trees, with low shrubbery and strange, dry looking grasses being more common. They would see strangely small, skinny wolves in the distance sometimes, which Kakashi said were called coyotes. Every now and then they would come across a creek running from the mountains, where they could refill their bottles. They ate from their supplies and from whatever they could forage on the way.

They stuck close to the roads because neither of them were familiar enough with the landscape to be able to navigate towards a town without aid. Fortunately, there were roadsigns pointing in the direction of civilian towns. Not one would never betray the presence of iwagakure, of course, but then that was hardly the point of this excursion.

No Konoha shinobi had been so free to roam Earth Country in decades.

Of course, if anyone saw through their disguise there would come a very quick and decisive end to their journey. Peace treaty or not, the war had simply been too recent for anyone to tolerate former enemies within their own borders for very long.

"We're definitely being tracked," Kakashi said that first evening, his voice barely audible over the crackle of the campfire they had just made. "Every now and then I catch a wisp of their smell."

Rin didn't outwardly respond. She knew better than to do so. "How close?" She asked.

"Close enough. Maybe five minutes, as a shinobi runs."

"That's _very_ close." Thanks for the heads-up, Sanbi.

_Don't blame me. You're the one not giving me any leeway._

Rin snorted.

Kakashi caught on. "Turtle problems?"

"He gets a little argumentative sometimes," Rin said quietly. Kakashi's brow furrowed and his lips thinned, the same expression he always adopted when she referred to her chats with Sanbi.

"Don't worry," she added calmly. "He's behaving."

_I am not your pet._

Rin smiled faintly. _Of course not. I'm your landlady, remember_?

Sanbi grumbled, but did not protest. Kushina's metaphor was not a very elegant one, but it worked well enough. Perhaps it was easier for Sanbi to think of himself as a tenant rather than a prisoner. Though if you asked Rin, she was as much a prisoner to him as he was to her.

Kakashi was still frowning, but he accepted her answer with a nod. "Our little hunting party isn't trying very hard to be subtle. They probably don't consider us a threat. Just worth observing."

Kakashi's senses were much stronger than those of anyone else Rin knew, and they had grown stronger still in ANBU, but he usually had to infuse them with a bit of chakra before he could sense anyone at this kind of range. He wouldn't have used chakra for fear of giving himself away, so he was sensing them without further announcing his senses. The patrol following them likely thought they were on a routine tailing mission following a couple of civilians, rather than shinobi with the means to detect them from such a distance. They would follow Kakashi and Rin for a while to see where they were headed, and then intercept them if they approached a town to check out their story. They had likely already garnered the information Rin and Kakashi had given to Kusa's border patrols.

Even so, it made Rin a little bit nervous. She stood up and stretched before walking over to Kakashi and joining him in poking at the fire. Much to her surprise, she found herself missing Toboe. She'd had to dismiss the little summon when they crossed the border out of fear that a sensor would be able to distinguish her from a normal dog. Toboe was affectionate, and right now Rin felt herself craving a good hug. She would just have to satisfy that need by sitting as close to Kakashi as she dared.

"It's strange that this country seem so peaceful," she said quietly. "I'm not sure why, but I was expecting…"

Kakashi nodded knowingly. "Me too. After Obito..." He frowned and looked down. He often did this, when he thought about Obito, but now she could see the expression on his entire face. She almost looked away from the flash of raw emotion that flashed over it.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed at his left eye, smudging the foundation on his skin.

"Don't," Rin said, catching his hand. "You'll uncover the scar."

His jaw twitched. "Right. Stupid."

"You're not used to it. It's only natural. Kurenai smudged her makeup all the time when she first started wearing it."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that comparison."

Rin smiled and released his wrist. Her hand tingled where she had touched him. "Deal with it. You wear makeup now."

His cheeks flushed a little." Not _always_ ," he said. "Only for missions – why am I defending myself? You know why I'm wearing it."

Rin laughed. "You're wearing it to present yourself in a certain manner. Just like Kurenai."

He stared at her, then sighed. "That's – yeah, okay, I guess that's true. Mahh, you're so unfair."

Rin laughed again and then, collecting her courage, leaned in to look at his face. "I don't think you smudged it too badly. Just touch it up tomorrow morning, when you wake up."

His skin still looked a little flushed, from up close. Her smile automatically widened, as it often did when they talked. She leaned out of his space before she could make him uncomfortable.

Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and avoided her eyes. "Okay. You're the expert."

Rin couldn't resist. "What, because I'm a girl?"

"Because you're – what, no, I didn't mean – you _know_ what I mean." He scowled when he caught her teasing expression. "You do the purple rectangle thing. That's makeup, right?"

"Well, they're not tattoos."

"That's Inuzuka territory, I suppose."

"Yes. Don't you have Inuzuka ancestry?"

"I guess. That's what dad used to say. Definitely on mom's side, but dad had his own weird canine thing going on," Kakashi said, staring into the fire. He didn't speak of his parents very often, and something in Rin automatically stilled.

She had seen a picture of his parents once, tucked away in an old and mostly empty family photo album she had found when she had first moved into his apartment. His father, a little bit older but still handsome, with Kakashi's coloring; and his mother, one cheek adorned with the Inuzuka red and her dark eyes sparkling with mischief. They had looked nice, if a little intimidating because of how dauntingly competent they had both been at their jobs.

Neither of them had made it past forty.

Then again, out of all the adults in Rin's life the only ones who had were her father and the Sandaime. She couldn't really count Jiraiya, who would be turning forty this year. She hadn't seen him since Minato's funeral, and thinking of him filled her with a whole host of mixed emotions. She understood why he had left. What she couldn't understand was why he hadn't taken Naruto with him, as his godfather.

She shook herself out of it. Best not to linger on some topics. "I suppose wherever your father's family came from might've had a clan similar to the Inuzuka," she suggested gently.

He paused, and then suddenly grimaced. "That sounds weirdly incestuous."

"Well, if you stop to think about it all clans are kind of –"

" _Don't._ "

Rin couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "Well, so long as you don't marry an Inuzuka, you should be just fine," she said, before she could really think about it.

Kakashi gave her a look of such astonishment that she almost laughed again. "Marry?" He repeated weakly.

"Well, as I said, that's how clans –"

"Don't you dare –"

"Keep it in the family, you know –"

At which point Kakashi threw his packet of beef jerky at her laughing face. Well, fair enough.

* * *

What followed was a lengthy and not particularly serious lecture on how Rin wasn't allowed to knock clans just because she wasn't from one herself, thank you very much, and anyway clan-less people weren't superior to clan people or vice versa, so none of this incest talk before said lecturer would throw up in his mouth, have mercy.

Needless to say they were both pretty relaxed by the time they went to sleep (one at a time, with the other standing guard) and both got a solid few hours before they packed up camp the next morning.

It proved to be a particularly hot day, and it wasn't very long before Rin found herself craving the coolness of Konoha's little river. She longed to take her boots off and take a dive, and knew Sanbi agreed.

Instead, they had another fairly long trek to go, after which they found themselves in a small farmer's settlement where they could ask for directions. Kakashi had one town in particular in mind, as it could count a sizable casino amongst its many fine establishments.

Well. They knew what sort of a woman they were chasing, didn't they?

They got their directions from a hapless old lady who wouldn't stop squeezing Kakashi's cheeks (Rin wisely stayed out of reach) and scolded him for the text on his shirt ("don't you know how rude that is, young man? You ought to know better!"). After they finally made their escape, Kakashi's right cheek looked rather ruddy and painful.

 Rin's lips quirked into a smile.

"Not a word," Kakashi hissed, holding up one finger.

Of course, that didn't really help with the laughter.

* * *

The sense of peace they both felt couldn't last, of course. Peace was generally the sort of thing other people felt, and Kakashi and Rin could only observe from a distance. That they had managed to spend two days in Earth Country without any trouble had been something of a miracle in itself, but it still came as a surprise to Rin when things finally did come to a head.

The journey to the casino town would take another day, so they stopped to make camp late in the afternoon at the foot of a mountain. When they explored the area they came across a creek which grew wider and wider as they followed it upstream, and culminated in a rather beautiful, secluded pool that was fed by a small waterfall.

In different company, Rin might have danced with excitement. As it was, her gaze crossed Kakashi's and he smiled, rolled his eyes and nodded at the pool. "Go on, then. I'll set up camp. Don't stay too long," he said.

Rin beamed. If either of them were hugging people, this would be when she crushed the air from his ribs. Her body felt sticky with sweat and dust, and to be able to wash it off would be heavenly.

Kakashi gave her a little wave and sauntered off, hands in his pockets. She watched him go, and then dropped her backpack to the ground to prepare. She took off her boots first, and dipped her feet into the pool. The first few feet weren't too deep, but the water still felt deliciously cool on her overheated skin. She stood there for a few minutes, simply basking in the sensation of it, before she grabbed the hands of her shirt and began to pull it up.

"The water is a little cold to go swimming," a voice rang out.

Rin's foot slipped on the slick stone and slid hip deep into the water before she could catch herself. Her chakra flared up instinctively and the water directly around her started to bubble and steam. Rin gritted her teeth and pushed her chakra back into the pit of her stomach before it would lash out against her will.

The stranger chuckled, swinging his legs out over the waterfall from where he perched on a jutting rock just above it. "Yes, that's what I suspected. Sorry for startling you, but I thought I'd better not wait any longer. I wouldn't be here at all, except, well. You're a shinobi, judging by that little display. Where are you from?"

Rin stared at him. She had to crane her neck to see him properly, as his perch was at least ten foot up. He was from Iwa, judging by his headband and his loose red robes. His haggard face placed him somewhere in his late thirties, although his thick red beard made it hard to see. There was no malice in his eyes, but something about him seemed distinctly off.

Whoever he was, he wore his aura of power like a cloak.

Rin didn't move. If he wanted a fight, the water was her natural habitat. There would be no better place from which to wage her war. "Waterfall," she lied, "but I left."

The man tilted his head. "You're a bit young to be a rogue."

"Is there such a thing as being too young, to a shinobi?" Rin retorted.

His eyebrows lifted and his smile widened. It had the effect of making him look older rather than younger, which Rin couldn't help but be assured by. She had to stay on guard, obviously, but he seemed...

Familiar, somehow. The thought made her wary. Some shinobi would cultivate an image of kindness. Made it much easier to stab others in the back.

"Are you looking for Iwagakure, then?" The man asked. "Because they don't usually go for foreign recruits."

"I'm not. Are you going to give me a choice?"

The man's smile faded slowly and a more thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "I ought to bring you in, but frankly, I don't really feel the need," he said. "I suppose I didn't leave on the best of terms, this morning."

Rin blinked. "Are you a rogue, too?"

His lips quirked. "In a way, I suppose."

That wasn't very helpful. Was he, or wasn't he? She wished she had Kakashi's knack for annoying people into answering him. "If you are," she said carefully, "then we don't have a problem, do we?"

The man humm I ed under his breath, and slowly shifted his weight before dropping down to the foot of the waterfall. He landed on the water's surface with barely a splash. Up close, his chakra burned like a furnace. Rin's heartbeat sped up.

 _Oh, what's this? Have you got a challenger for me_? Sanbi grumbled, waking up. Rin ignored him.

The stranger was shorter than she had expected, but with chakra like that he had to be a jounin at the very least. She knew how devastatingly fast Kakashi could be – if this man was the same, she might not be able to counter.

The stranger frowned a little as he looked her over. "You don't look much like a Waterfall girl to me," he mused. "They tend to have darker complexions, don't they..? Hmm."

Rin held her breath.

"Well, I suppose that's just a stereotype," the stranger said, smiling. There was a sardonic edge to his voice. He knew it was a lie. He had to know. "My name is Roshi. Have you heard that name before?" He added, still with that falsely cheery tone.

"I haven't," Rin said. There was a tremor in her voice and she instinctively stepped back, further up on to the bank.

 _Come now, little Rin. Give me just a few minutes of freedom, and I'll stop him from scaring you,_ Sanbi crooned. _This guy seems strong_. _I would have_ fun.

Roshi looked her over again with a scrutinizing eye, as if to see whether she was lying. Something strange and dark flashed across Roshi's face as he looked down at her legs, and he suddenly took a step back, his smile completely fading. "Perhaps you really haven't," he said, sounding more genuine than before, "but I think perhaps you should."

His chakra flashed suddenly, the feeling of it bursting out of his body like flames, even though no jutsu was activated.

The moment he did, Sanbi roared out in fury. _IT'S HIM_! He cried out, throwing himself against his chains with enough force that Rin could feel it like a physical blow. It _'s him, it's him_!

Rin staggered back and forced her chakra back up against Sanbi's to contain him, or soothe him, whichever came first. As she retreated she realized her mistake: she had rolled up her leggings and, in doing so, exposed the lower edges of her seal where it circled around her upper thighs. When she had stepped back onto the bank, into the shallows...

He must have recognized her seals.

Roshi knew what she was. And Sanbi knew what _Roshi_ was.

"You're a –" she gasped.

"Yes," he said, now staring at her eyes. "I am. And so, it seems, are you. Sanbi, is it? That's what my... passenger says. Which means you're Kiri, not Waterfall."

Rin didn't correct him. She felt dizzy just from holding Sanbi back, and the edges of her vision seemed to blur the way they often did when Sanbi had taken enough of her over to turn her eyes into an alarming shade of magenta. No wonder Roshi was staring.

"Which – which one are you?" She asked.

Iwa had two jinchuuriki, after all.

Roshi grimaced briefly. "Yonbi. One up from you."

 _I'll SHOW you who's one up from who!_ Sanbi roared, bashing against Rin's shields again. She staggered, gasped, but she kept her footing. The water around her was starting to heat up from the force of his rage. If he would start boiling it, she would have to get out.

Roshi didn't relax. "It's still pretty new to you, I take it? He's giving you a hard time?"

" _Yes_ ," Rin gasped. It was hard even just to breathe. She fumbled around in her hip bag. She still had one of Minato's seals, if she could just get it out...

"I remember those days. Don't give up, though. You won't like what happens if you do," he said.

She already knew what would happen if she lost control. She had seen it ravage her village.

"Why... Do they hate each other?" Rin gasped.

"Hell if I know."

 _It's not my brother I hate_ , Sanbi hissed. _It's this wretched cage_! _LET ME OUT_.

Rin shook her head fiercely and forced herself to back up onto the bank until she was no longer in the water. If she could be around Naruto and Kushina without it being a problem, she could do this, too. "They seriously need to work on their anger management," she growled out through gritted teeth.

This earned her a strained smile. "I don't think self-actualization is very high on their agenda," Roshi said. "Certainly explains why you left  Kiri, though. I can't imagine the village of the bloody mist would be any kinder on their jinchuuriki than they are on the rest of their people."

Rin tipped her head in acknowledgment. Kiri certainly hadn't been kind to her. The tips of her fingers touched the flimsy paper of Minato's seal. She pulled it out and immediately stuck it to decide of her thigh.

The relief was almost instantaneous. The build-up of Sanbi's chakra collapsed and flushed out of her system, leaving Rin shaking with adrenaline. Her own chakra heaved in protest, and she felt the overwhelming urge to just let it burn out of her in one of her favorite water jutsu, just to get rid of that awful feeling of overflowing with power. She pushed it down ruthlessly. Roshi wasn't being aggressive, and he obviously had some issues with Iwa. If she did start a fight with him, it could be potentially catastrophic. Kakashi was too close for that to happen.

Roshi made an approving noise. "That's a start," he said. "Next, get the hell out of here. Stay away from Iwa, if you don't want to end up getting a vivisection. Stay alive. And run, keep running, as far away from your home as you can. _They are not worth your suffering_." He practically growled the last few words.

Rin's confusion must have shown. Roshi snorted. "Given how far you've already made it, I guess you already knew that. Just don't think they're going to treat you any better anywhere else. Our lot is a rotten one, kid."

"Is that why you left this morning? Are they cruel to you?"

Roshi twitched. Something in his face changed, and Rin knew that she wouldn't get an answer.

"Don't ask stupid questions, girl."

Just behind her, Kakashi's chakra came roaring into existence, like a haze of fury pouring out from the center of his body as he came racing to her side. The sword in his hand was the one she had given him two years ago, for his birthday, and it glowed nearly white with his rage.

"I sensed _Sanbi_ , are you – "he hissed, glancing briefly at her before focusing the heat of his glare on Roshi once more.

Roshi's shoulders sagged. "Ah. Your handler, I presume," he said, sounding tired. "Perhaps you're not a runaway, after all."

Rin's heart raced. "No, no – you don't understand," she stepped between the two, holding up her hands. "Roshi-san, this is my – my brother. Sukea, it's okay, Roshi-san is like me."

Kakashi froze. "You mean..?"

"Yes. But he's not going to take me to Iwa. Are you, Roshi-san?" Rin said, turning back to Roshi.

Roshi's lip curled up in disdain. "A jinchuuriki, and a teenager with enough killing intent to lay out an ox," he said. "Should we be expecting a hunting party too, then? I can't imagine Kiri takes very kindly to two such assets running away." Doubt practically dripped off his voice as he said it.

"Please, Roshi-san, I promise you we're not –"

"for a pair of siblings, the two of you look awfully dissimilar," Roshi sneered. "Sure, there's the hair color, but that's about the only resemblance. And, really, if you've got teeth that look like they could rip out throats you probably shouldn't be bearing them when you come charging in pretending to be a civilian," he added, practically snapping at Kakashi.

Kakashi's lips curled down in displeasure, simultaneously hiding his pronounced canines again. "Perhaps you shouldn't throw your chakra around like that if you don't want to draw unwanted attention," he said coolly.

Roshi snorted. "People who sense my chakra don't usually come charging in to fight me."

"I guess you underestimated your audience."

" _Sukea_ ," Rin ground out, forcing herself to use his fake name. "Don't. Roshi-san wasn't going to hurt me."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

Roshi gave a scoffing laugh. "Little boy comes charging in and immediately thinks he knows what's going on better than we do, does he? Typical shinobi!"

" Roshi-san! Please." She looked from one to the other, as sternly as she could manage. "There is no need for any of us to fight."

Something in her tone finally seemed to land for Kakashi, who clenched his jaw but slid into a slightly more relaxed pose. His chakra, still angry, started to feel less like a wildfire and more like a flame.

Roshi watched him intently for a moment, and then relaxed himself. "I know you're lying to me," he said slowly, "but I will tolerate the two of you for the sake of your burden." His eyes flicked over to Rin to leave no doubt as to which burden he meant. "You're lucky I parted on bad terms with my own village this morning, or I would have done my damn best to incinerate the two of you."

Kakashi bristled, but Rin silenced them both with a look. "That would not have gone well for either of us, Roshi-san. I am young, but I'm not a pushover. I'm sure you can imagine. Nor is my friend."

Roshi twitched slightly. "Tell me this, at least. Why are you here? Why on earth did you think here would be safer?"

Rin hesitated. How much could she safely tell him? She felt a strange kind of kinship with him, due to their shared burden, but she would be a fool to trust him outright. She wished for a moment that they had met under different circumstances. With Kushina in a coma, there was no one else for her to talk to about being a jinchuuriki. No one else who could really understand, anyway. And even if Kushina did wake up, she would no longer truly be a jinchuuriki, her burden largely transferred to her son. It would be different.

"There someone else. Like you and me," she said slowly. "We're trying to help her."

"Another jinchuuriki?" Roshi frowned.

"We need to find someone else to do it. Our business won't interfere with yours, or Iwa's," Rin continued, ignoring his question. If he couldn't infer it from what she had said, that was his problem. She wasn't about to explain their entire situation to him.

Roshi's dark eyes stared intently into hers, as if he thought he could see straight into her soul. "People like us aren't treated well, in this country," he said slowly. "My… Fellow Iwa  jinchuuriki and I... Were both made into hosts when we were barely more than toddlers. Since then, they've treated us like pariahs. Necessary evil. First they beat a dog, and then they are surprised when it bites back. It is no different in the other villages. There is no safe space for us. But..." He trailed off and went silent, lost in thought for a moment. "But if anyone can understand what that is like, it's other jinchuuriki. So perhaps we ought to support each other."

Relief blossomed through Rin's chest like wildfire. "Yes, _yes_."

Roshi grimaced. "So, do what you have to do. Save this woman. God knows no one else will. And when you're done, you get the hell out of here, you hear me?"

"I understand," Rin said.

Roshi nodded and took a step back, his eyes flicking between the two of them. "Don't stick around here for too long. Our little power display will have alerted your tail. Move quickly. Move quietly. Go now."

He looked at them for a little bit longer, eyes lingering on Rin's face and Kakashi's eye patch, and then abruptly turned around and vanished between the rocks.

Rin almost fell to her knees with relief.

A hand landed on her shoulder. Kakashi. "Rin? Did he hurt you?" He asked her quietly.

Rin shook her head. "I'm... I'm fine. More shaken than anything else."

Kakashi knelt next to her to look her in the eyes. "They're turning back to their normal color," he said, sounding relieved. "Was he really a jinchuuriki?"

"Yes. I could feel it."

They are not worth your suffering, he had said. He had sounded so bitter, so sad. If he really believed she was from Kiri, he probably believed she was on the run.

He... He had tried to _help_ her, even before she had told him she wanted to help another jinchuuriki's.

He had tried to help her, a complete stranger, because she was a jinchuuriki like him.

It made her feel strangely sad that he had left so quickly.

"-re not listening to me. Rin, hey," Kakashi waved his hand before her eyes, before pulling her up by her arm. "Come on, we have to go. He was right, the patrol is going to be here, soon. Come on, get dressed." His hand hovered awkwardly around the edge of her leggings, as if he thought she was so out of it that he had to pull them down for her.

Rin's eyes burned with some strange and overpowering emotion, but she shook herself out of her thoughts and pulled the legs of her legging back down. She found her boots a few steps away and put those on, too. She might get blisters because of her still wet skin, but so be it. She didn't feel much like sticking around and discovering how truthful this other jinchuuriki had really been.

For some reason, the thought of Roshi betraying her burned.

Kakashi half dragged her along for the first mile or so, while her legs were still gaining strength, but it wasn't long before her body found its usual equilibrium. Somewhere behind them, Roshi was trying to find his own way out. But he was alone, with no Kakashi by his side to help him. He was alone, because that was the fate of most jinchuuriki.

Not for the first time, Rin found herself fiercely grateful for her own little family, and terrified of what her other friends might say if they knew what she really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Please do let me know, I've had another rough week and comments always cheer me up. I probably won't be able to finish chapter 5 before the end of the year, so happy holidays to all of you! Thank you so much for reading.
> 
> I've been thinking I might start taking small prompts for this story. Think small, funnier awkward social situations I could work in. I do have a plot line to stick to, but I think it could be fun! So if there's anything you really want to see, let me know and I might fit it in.
> 
> Notes:  
> I pictured Earth Country as a kind of wild West landscape, with little vegetation and lots of huge orange rock formations. I don't really remember how it was portrayed in Canon, but this is my interpretation. Roshi is, of course, canon's 4-tails jinchuuriki.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which nothing goes quite as planned, Rin finds the courage to speak her heart, and Kakashi once again shows he should never be allowed to improvise.

The patrol caught up with them in about ten minutes, fading out of the shadows that crossed the dusty red land. There was no running away from them in these unfamiliar lands without giving away their shinobi status and getting hopelessly lost.

The only thing for it was for Kakashi and Rin to allow themselves to be surrounded, and face the music. Whether they liked it or not.

The patrol counted five shinobi, all clad in the dusky red and brown of Iwa. Their leader was a plain-faced man with keen, suspicious eyes. "Name and country of origin?" He barked, inspecting them with the same expression Kakashi usually reserved for snotty genin.

When it came to pretending to be someone she was not, Rin had some experience.

"Nobe Rei and Sukea, from Grass Country," Rin said, praying the stammer in her voice was convincing. "We – we are going to see our aunt? Her name is –"

"Yes, thank you. Her name is irrelevant. Where in Grass Country?"

Rin named a small hamlet near the border of the land of Earth they had decided on earlier. She kept her head down and bit her lip, inching closer to Kakashi as if she was looking for some security. He, meanwhile, was playing the role of the protective older brother, putting an arm around her shoulders. It looked pretty convincing, but Rin could feel how little weight he was actually resting on her shoulders. She fought the urge to smile. Playing a normal teenage kid who had no issues with touching people? It had to be killing him.

The shinobi leader looked down at his paperwork, leaving through the pages before nodding and handing the paper off to one of his teammates. "We sensed a disturbance about fifteen minutes ago, near your location. Care to tell us what happened?"

Kakashi and Rin exchanged a look. Rin couldn't read him. The arm around her shoulders disappeared.

"There was this man," Kakashi said, taking a step forward. His expression was suitably spooked. "He watched us. I don't know what he wanted, but… He was strange."

For a moment, Rin wondered why on earth he would stick so close to the truth, but she realized the answer just as quickly. Roshi likely had quite the reputation of the home, if he was treated as badly as he had implied. By putting a face to their assailant, Kakashi was giving more credence to their story.

"Terrifying," Rin agreed, although she hated the thought of Roshi being tracked down because of this information. "I almost fainted."

Which was a weak excuse. Any real civilian _would_ have fainted under the chakra pressure Roshi put out. She could only hope these guys didn't know that.

The other shinobi exchanged looks. "This man. What did he look like?"

"Oh, it was hard to focus," Rin said, just as Kakashi said, "I think he had a beard. Red hair."

Something in the leader's face twitched. One of the shinobi at the back took a tentative step forward. "That does match our reports, Captain," he said.

The leader shot him an annoyed glance. "Hush, Yashida." He turned back on Kakashi and Rin. "Did this man say anything?"

"I don't know. He seemed unhinged," Kakashi said, and Rin's stomach dropped. He was pandering to a stereotype, she knew that, he would never actually believe it – right?

Right?

Kakashi glanced at her, clearly expecting her to speak up, but Rin couldn't say anything. She felt nauseous.

"Unhinged, huh? Yeah, that sounds about right," the shinobi leader finally said, relaxing a little. His men laughed. "Don't take it personally. He's got a lot on his mind," the latter he said with a grin and a wink at his teammates, who laughed harder.

None of this was really helping with Rin's nausea.

"If that's all, shinobi-san..." Kakashi began.

The team leader dropped his smile. "Just a moment. In what direction did this man move?"

"Uhh – I don't know. East, maybe? It was hard to think straight," Kakashi said.

"Right, right. Well, kids – truth be told, you're lucky to be alive. He's not a nice man," the leader said. "Although he doesn't usually bother civilians…" He frowned.

"Thank you for checking up on us," Rin forced out, giving the team a hurried bow. "I am glad the shinobi of Iwagakure take such good care of their people. She really, really wanted them to leave.

 _I could make them_ , Sanbi whispered.

Kakashi belatedly bowed as well, and the frown fell off the team leader's face. He even managed a smile. "Sure, kids. Now, on your way –"

The sentence was cut off when his only female teammate suddenly stepped forward and grabbed his elbow. Rin hadn't noticed her up until then; with her height and androgynous face, Rin had confused her for one of the men. The woman looked almost sickly pale, and was looking straight at Rin.

"Captain," the woman said. "Captain, I'm sensing something off about the girl –"

A sensor. The woman was a chakra sensor. _Exactly_ what the other team would need to see through their disguise.

"I think she's," the woman managed to say, and then her eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head and she dropped to the ground.

For a moment, all the Iwa chunin could do was stare. Then they turned as one to Kakashi and Rin –

And stared straight into a fully developed Sharingan.

Rin hadn't seen Kakashi fight in over a year, and now she realized just how his practice with Mikoto showed. He ducked and weaved between their opponents, like water shifting through rocks. The Sharingan glowed ominously as each and every last one of his enemies' blows went wide. He moved like a ghost, Rin thought. Like he wasn't there at all, just some after-image of him. He was hardly even panting by the time he'd dropped the first three. This was the power of the Sharingan, combined with his particular brand of lethal grace and brilliance.

Rin wondered if even Obito could have predicted something like this.

The last of the chunin came rushing at Rin at high speed, leaving her only a moment to think "no visible marks" before she ducked smoothly underneath the chunin's adrenaline fueled swing and called up a sheet of water to cover his face and choke him into unconsciousness. It only took a moment, and then silence returned to the clearing.

"Not exactly what we planned," she breathed. "Are you sure that was wise?"

Kakashi looked at her with the strangest kind of smile. It was only there for a moment before it vanished, but it lingered long enough that Rin wouldn't be able to forget it anytime soon.

Kakashi shook himself out of whatever he had been thinking and started to drag the nearest body behind the nearest rock large enough to, well, hide a couple of bodies. "They would have attacked in a moment, anyway. Did you kill him?"

"No. That seemed a bit disproportional," Rin said truthfully.

Kakashi nodded. "Good. Well, it makes it more difficult for us, but they're just chunin, not monsters."

Pride welled up inside her, briefly pushing past the hurt caused by his earlier remark about Roshi. He had come a long way. Perhaps it was strange to be considerate to people who had been her enemies very recently, but up close they looks no different than a Konoha patrol. She bent down to help Kakashi with the bodies. "They're going to be trouble when they wake up, though. Any ideas?"

Kakashi hummed under his breath. "Genjutsu. There's one I know from ANBU – copied it, but haven't really had the time to perfect it yet. If I get it right, it should convince them they're tied up with. After a day or two they'll realize they've been had, but at least they won't starve to death. Assuming that's what we're aiming for."

"We are. Like you said, there's no reason to kill them. And we don't want to start another war." As pride faded her earlier irritation resurfaced, coloring her words. She paused and pushed it down. "Let's put them in the shade. Dehydration is a real risk for them otherwise. And we need to think of a solution for what we do when they do wake up and warn others."

"New disguises and new names, if we can manage them," Kakashi said. "And quickly, too. Someone is bound to notice these guys have vanished. To be honest, if this were an ANBU mission, this would be the point where we would give up because the risk of incriminating ourselves was too big." He finished dragging another of the shinobi behind the rock and sighed. "Beard guy really threw us for a loop here."

Rin stilled. Well, if he was going to press the issue… "He wasn't deranged, though," she said. She looked away.

"What?"

"You said he was deranged. He wasn't."

Kakashi finally looked up from what he was doing with a quizzical frown, as if he had only just noticed her anger. "I know. I just figured –"

"That they would assume he is deranged because he's a jinchuuriki," Rin finished for him. She had to say it. She couldn't just stew on her anger and thus give Sanbi more of a foothold. But truth be told, she wanted to say it. She wanted to let him know his tricky words had hurt her, even if it had been unintentionally.

She had to make him understand, even if only a little, what it did to her when she was reminded that people actually thought that way about people like her.

"I'm… Sorry," he said after a moment, still frowning. "But you know I didn't mean you."

"No, you didn't. Nobody does. Because they don't really know who jinchuuriki really are. They can't see past that label and understand the person behind it."

"I see you," Kakashi said. "I see you, and Kushina, and Naruto. I'm sorry if I made you doubt that, even for a moment."

The sincerity in his voice finally made some of that anger loosen and dissipate. What was left wasn't aimed at him but at people like the Iwa team leader, who could look at a man in crisis, call him deranged, and laugh. It was aimed at her friends, when she thought that they might drop her if they knew the truth. And it was aimed at shinobi in general, for forcing there to be jinchuuriki in the first place.

She took a deep, controlled breath. She slowly let it out. "I know you do," she finally said. "But I can't stand it when you say such things, even when you don't mean them."

"I know," Kakashi said, sounding pained. "You trust me."

For a moment, Rin was sure that he knew exactly where he stood with her, and how much she needed him to be on her side. It was simultaneously terrifying and comforting. "You know I do."

He gave her a crooked little smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, although it didn't lack for warmth. "Care to hide some bodies with your best friend?" He quipped.

Rin stared at him for a moment. Then, a laugh escaped her. Perhaps it was the absurdity of their situation or the relief of his confirmation of trust, but it felt good to laugh.

Kakashi smile widened a little. It didn't stop him from pointing at the body of the man she had taken down and saying, "chop chop, he won't move himself."

Which didn't really help with the laughing.

* * *

They moved as quickly as they dared for the next two hours or so, avoiding the larger roads as much as they could.

Fortunately, as their destination was very much a town dominated by civilians and still relatively close to the border, there were far fewer shinobi around. That was undoubtedly also one of Tsunade's reasons for picking this particular town, aside from the obvious attractions.

As the town appeared on the horizon, Kakashi wondered idly if it would be anything like Steam village, with its scantily-clad people.

He didn't particularly care for the fact that the sentence ended there, in his mind. He tried to conjure up some kind of interest for the gambling dens or alcohol that had also been present, but his brain didn't take the bait. It stuck on scantily-clad people and insisted on showcasing a few of his clearer memories.

This was A Problem.

He tried to think of Rin and his present situation instead, but this only had the unfortunate side effect of blurring the present and past together in a way his brain _certainly_ hadn't before. Rin, taking out that chunin in one smooth movement – while wearing significantly fewer clothes.

Yeah, no, _definitely_ a problem. His brain didn't much discriminate between men and women when it came to these kinds of thoughts, but it had always done him the courtesy of not involving his best friend/teammate/roommate when it conjured up scenarios. He had _liked_ it that way. It was nice and uncomplicated, much unlike having such thoughts about someone you saw on a daily basis. That made only having a single wall between their bedrooms _significantly_ more uncomfortable.

"Are you feeling okay? You look a little flushed," Rin said, coming up from behind him to put a hand to his forehead. He almost slapped it away.

"Just fine!" He said. His voice squeaked a little.

Best friend, she's your best friend, he told himself. She ought to be clothed on all occasions, even in your brain. Stick to the people from Steam village. Much safer that way.

Stick was kind of funny word, wasn't it, if you thought about it in a certain way –

Kakashi bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood. Rin was still looking at him funny. Of course she was. He prayed to whatever God there was that she hadn't magically learned to read minds or – or that she could otherwise, err, discover what was going through his mind. It would probably be a very confusing thing to see from the outside, anyway. Lots of gyrating.

He almost slapped himself. "Common protocol dictates there's going to be one or two guards at the gate, for a town this size," he rattled off. Yes, finally a safe topic! "Not necessarily shinobi though; they probably can't spare the men, this shortly after the war."

"That's good." A beat. "Are you _sure_ you're okay?"

"Absolutely!"

"… Okay. So long as you remember our new cover story."

"I don't forget mission details."

"... Of course, you never would." Rin smiled hesitantly. "Well, let's hope for the best!" She said, crossing her fingers.

The possibility of discovery did, at least, cool down Kakashi's rather bothersome brain a little. Scantily clad people were replaced by scowling enemies and the two women he remembered meeting two years ago. Tsunade always looked sad in his memory. Would Shizune still be with her? She would be eighteen now, wouldn't she? Or thereabouts? She might have set out to live a life of her own…

Somehow, he couldn't picture it. Her loyalty to Tsunade had seemed unconditional. Barring any tragedies, she would still be there. Good. Two people were easier to find than one. Of course, it would be easier still if he could use his dogs, but he wanted to check the town for shinobi before risking it.

"Speaking of mission details," Rin continued quietly, "this town..?"

"Ishitani-cho. Midsized town, locally governed. Famous for its casino, but also for its black-market and civilian-run gangs," Kakashi rattled off. "We had an agent stationed here up until a few months ago to keep track of potential trade links to Fire Country."

"Sounds... Lovely," Rin grimaced. "Although – if it is self-governing, that would explain the gangs. If Iwa was in charge those would be long gone."

"Which in turn explains why _she_ would come here."

"I suppose even someone of her caliber would prefer to avoid being found out."

Kakashi sniffed. "If she would fight at all. "

"Didn't she fight in Steam?"

"She charged in to protect her student, and then she left. Looked like she couldn't stand the sight of the fight. She certainly didn't stick around to help us," he replied. "We didn't end up losing any people, but if we had? That would have been on her."

Rin frowned at him. "It's not that I don't understand why you're angry, but if we're going to convince her to come home with us you're going to have to keep it to yourself," she said gently.

Kakashi fought down the irrational burst of anger her words caused. She was right, of course, and he was no longer at twelve-year-old brat. He wouldn't allow himself to be that person again. He looked away, out across the road that ran towards the town. He saw a few carts in the distance, each filled with goods and the merchants who pendled them.

"I know," he finally said. "I won't compromise it."

Rin smiled and bumped her shoulder against his. He couldn't tell what she was thinking behind that smile, but it was still somehow reassuring. He managed a smile of his own. She liked it when he smiled back.

The towers of Ishitani-chou loomed over them like huge beehives, apartments stacked one atop another.

"Look at all the colors!" Rin gasped, pointing out the painted shutters and different plaster works. Many of them were in earth tones, but a few had been painted bright yellows and oranges with wall high portraits in impossible colors curling around the windows. The side of another tall building was taken up completely by a painting of a woman dancing to an imagined beat.

Rin took it all in with wide-eyed wonder. Kakashi felt more wary himself, far too aware of their mission. On the upside, at least they hadn't entered the town through its red light district. He shivered. His earlier thought-train derailment had been quite enough of that for one day, thanks.

They followed the plan and walked through the town until they reached a quieter neighborhood with a small hotel they could use as their base of operations. Once they were in their room they changed their clothes, eye contacts and, in Rin's case, haircut.

Kakashi, for his part, looked at the unruly mob of brown curls he had given himself and grabbed his kunai, ready to start cutting the hair off.

Rin brought her hands to her face when he got out of the bathroom, her eyes as wide as saucers. "You cut off your hair," she squeaked out.

Kakashi shrugged. His head felt strangely cold with hair this short. "I figure the patrol would remember the curls," he said, feeling strangely self-conscious. Perhaps cutting it this short had been a bit silly, after all…

"You could have just... Washed out the dye," Rin said, now hiding behind her hands.

"Is it… That bad?"

"It's – well! It's. It's something."

"So it's not great."

"It's a little… Uneven."

"I didn't have scissors."

Which was the point where Rin started laughing. Kakashi flushed red. She hadn't been shocked, she'd been trying not to laugh! His mouth went thin. "Well – at least they won't recognize me," he protested halfheartedly.

Rin made a strange wheezing sound. She'd gone red in the face, and was now waving her hand while being as if to cool it. "I'm sorry – I – oh gosh – I shouldn't laugh at you, it's just that you forgot to do the back, so now you've got – you've got –"

Great. He had a mullet now. He hated mullets.

Growling, he stomped back to the bathroom and went to work on the rest of his rebellious hair. When he was done, he touched his reflection in the mirror. He could barely even recognize himself. He saw himself in the mirror often enough, but never with the scar covered up or his hair dyed brown and close cropped. It did strange things to the planes of his face. He briefly wondered whether Rin would like it.

No, nope, not going there. It was just a face, one that was hiding a particularly stupid brain. Puberty, as far as Kakashi was concerned, could go and stick it where the sun didn't shine. That would be a far more productive use of its time.

Objectively, he looked fine. His team captain in ANBU would approve. The only real issue was the eyepatch, but going without it would be worse. He couldn't keep the eye open for long enough, not even if he covered it with a dark contact lens. He sighed and tied it back on before leaving the bathroom again.

"There. Are you happy now?" He asked Rin, turning on the spot and making sure to point at the back of his head. "No mullet."

Except that Rin didn't look at him. She was staring out of the window, wide-eyed. "Kakashi... This Shizune person... You said she has a pet pig, didn't you? And black hair?"

"I… Did."

Rin nodded slowly. "Then this is our lucky day, because I just saw her walk past the hotel."

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Calling it now: Kakashi has a competence kink. Also, I know people tend to write him as being either completely gay or completely straight, but I present to you the best of both worlds: bisexual Kakashi. I feel powerful.  
> Next time, the kids encounter Shizune and Tsunade – but their luck might just run out. It can't be too easy, can it?  
> In other news, did you know only about 8% of you guys comment? I'd love to get those numbers up because those comments are what keep me writing!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi and Rin finally meet Tsunade and Shizune, but convincing them to leave their new home base isn't going to be easy – especially since at least 50% of the people involved suffer from a complete and incorrigible lack of _tact_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! First of all, thank you so much for the barrage of lovely comments on Chapter 5. They were so much fun to read and helped me through a bit of a writer's block <3 
> 
> I took a short writing break because I was feeling spectacularly uninspired before that, and I can honestly say it was the right decision. I've written and finished almost 3 whole chapters in the last week and a half and solidified the rest of the plot. I hope you will enjoy it!
> 
> Little head's up: at one point in this chapter, Rin's train of thought implies that she doesn't blame her father but herself for his rejecting her. This is, of course, entirely incorrect. Parental neglect/abuse is a terribly insidious thing indeed.

Shizune navigated the streets of Ishitani-cho with the ease of a native, slipping through crowds without drawing notice for even a moment and disappearing into alleyways before reappearing in a completely different place. Her chakra was coiled tightly within her, barely perceptible, and her smell was so hard to distinguish she may as well not have had one.

In short, she moved like a shinobi in hiding.

"She moves well. I guess she really has been with Senju Tsunade-hime for almost ten years," Rin muttered, as she and Kakashi paced after Toboe, whose short little legs moved quickly enough to blur as she tracked Shizune, her nose pressed firmly to the ground.

"If _Tsunade-hime_ ever gets around to teaching," Kakashi muttered back.

They exited the alley and had to wait for a large cart to pass before continuing. The streets were so crowded that the influx of smells and chakra signatures had been a little overwhelming to Toboe, but she'd powered through it like a trooper. She was making real progress.

"Please keep that to yourself, would you?" Rin said, her eyes flicking across the crowds. "I doubt she'll go anywhere if we insult her first."

"It might be a bit too late for that," Kakashi admitted.

Rin's stomach lurched. "Oh no, _Kakashi_."

"To be fair, I was fourteen."

"That's no excuse! I know you were a little… Difficult, but –"

Toboe made an abrupt right turn, briefly disappearing from sight. They had to run to catch up.

"– But I figured you would respect her, for being a legendary shinobi," Rin finished, frowning.

"Mahh, sure, but she was drunk and rude, so I figured –"

" _Drunk_?"

"Ahh. Did I neglect to tell you our only hope for Kushina's survival is a raging drunkard?"

Rin stopped walking for long enough to square her jaw and glare at him. Satisfyingly, he flinched a little.

"You told me," she finally said. "But that kind of language isn't going to convince her to come along."

"We both know this entire thing is a long-shot. Even if she didn't drink, the only reason she hasn't been labeled a missing Nin is because she's on friendly terms with the Hokage," he countered.

"We still have to try."

"I know, and we will – but that doesn't mean we have to mollycoddle her. She needs to take responsibility."

Up ahead, Toboe barked. Her high-pitched voice was already growing familiar enough that Rin could pick it out in a crowd, even with several other dogs roaming the street. The little dog had stopped in front of an apartment block, waiting for them to arrive with a wagging tail. "In here," she said.

Kakashi and Rin exchanged a look, then entered the foyer. Toboe's nails clipped loudly on the linoleum floors as she led them on. They went two floors up and then maneuvered through a hallway past a few rope skipping children. Toboe stopped before the last door in the hallway, her tongue lolling from her mouth. She grinned. "Looksie."

The door was closed, but Rin trusted the dog's judgment. Kakashi pushed Rin back into the hallway to wait just around the corner, out of sight of the children and anyone else who might leave the apartment. Kakashi unceremoniously scooped Toboe up and clamped her snout shut. He gave her a strict look and held up his index finger. Toboe whined but nodded, and Kakashi put her back on the floor.

After some ten minutes, Toboe pressed her wet nose against the back of Rin's leg. At the same time, a door opened and closed in the distance. Rin grabbed Kakashi's elbow. Shizune was leaving. Unless she jumped out of the window she would have to come past the two of them..

Kakashi pulled her into the stairwell and forcefully sat the both of them down on the top step, their backs towards the hallway. They would just look like a pair of teenagers hanging out. Toboe plopped herself down on Rin's lap. Rin ran her hand through the dog's fur without even feeling it. All she could focus on were the footsteps behind her.

Then, the brush of fabric against a doorpost and sandals on the concrete stairs. A whiff of disinfectant, and then a slight figure clad in black brushed past them, muttering a soft apology. Kakashi's fingers tightened around Rin's, and he stood up.

"Shizune," he began.

Shizune flinched visibly and whirled around to face them. She was perhaps a year or two older than Rin, with a slightly plain but not un-pretty face with large black eyes and a black bob. She was skinny, but taller than Rin. A senbon glistened in her raised fist. "Whoever you are," she said, "I warn you – I'm armed."

Her voice was perfectly controlled and her hand didn't so much as tremble. If she had wanted to loosen that senbon, they would have been hard-pressed to dodge it.

"Shizune-san," Rin began, carefully putting Toboe down, "we're not here to fight."

Shizune's eyes narrowed. "How do you know my name?"

"Mahh, I guess I'm a little unrecognizable like this," Kakashi drawled.

Shizune shot him an annoyed look, then did a double take. Her eyes flicked from his hair to his eye to his chin, then narrowed again. "I don't know who –" she blinked. Her chakra reached out tentatively, raising the hairs on Rin's arms. Kakashi allowed his own to briefly rise to the surface so she could recognize it.

 "Wait, don't tell me. You're that boy from –" Shizune cut herself off again.

Shizune's eyes dropped to his face again. Her eyebrows rose slightly.

Kakashi flushed red and pulled at his scarf as if he wanted to cover his face up.  Shizune saw, and raised her eyebrows even further.

"Nice… Haircut," Shizune said awkwardly. She grimaced.

 Rin came to the rescue. "I'm sorry, but is there anywhere we can talk?" She asked, keeping her voice down.

Shizune's eyes briefly flicked over Rin's form as if to check her for weapons. Then she nodded. "You're with him?" She asked.

"We're teammates," Rin said.

Shizune's mouth opened in an oh shape. "Then you must be the medic," she said. "On... _his_ team," she finished, obviously not wanting to say Minato's name.

Rin didn't so much as flinch. "I was at the time. Do you know why we're here?"

"I can guess," Shizune said, her eyes flicking past them to look back up into the hallway. "Let's go somewhere else first, though. Just in case."

Rin blinked. Shizune really _did move_ like a shinobi in hiding, because she was in hiding. The question was, who was she hiding from? Rin pressed a kiss to Toboe's warm skull and dismissed her. The summon had done an excellent job tracking Shizune, but subtlety was not her strong suit.

Shizune led them out of the apartment block with quick, sure steps. "Your disguises are good," she whispered, glancing over her shoulder, "but you still move like shinobi."

Rin opened her mouth to protest, but Shizune shook her head. "Not you. Him."

Kakashi huffed, but Shizune wasn't wrong. His spine was too straight and tension ran through his limbs like electricity crackling along a life wire. He glanced between them, and when Rin didn't jump to his defense, he sighed and dropped his shoulders, slouching. He shortened his stride and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Better?"

Rin grinned. "There's a more familiar sight," she said, bumping his shoulder with hers. He rolled his eyes but didn't readjust his posture.

 Shizune gave him a quick nod of approval. "If you look unassuming people will expect less of you. It's a good habit to grow into." She took hold of Rin's wrist and pulled her along into an alley Rin would have walked straight past without noticing if she had been alone. Shizune's hand was thin and bony, but her grip was strong enough to hurt. Shizune looked pretty unassuming herself, come to think of it. Rin filed it away for an another time.

They took another turn, spiraling deeper and deeper into the grungy heart of the city and leaving the more crowded main street behind until it was little more than a murmur in the distance. This part of the city stank of sewage and mildew. Judging by Kakashi's face, there were plenty of other, nastier smells to go around, too. They ended up before a low building with a wonky little door that Shizune had to pull at several times before it opened.

"Sorry, it's been jammed ever since shishou first entered the place. She doesn't always know her own strength," Shizune said, holding the door open for them.

On the other side lay a small, surprisingly neat living room with a kitchenette. A set of doors presumably led to the bedrooms. "It's not much, but it's home," Shizune shrugged. "Have you had anything to eat?"

"Is Tsunade in here?" Kakashi asked, leafing through a stack of newspapers on the dinner table.

Shizune's expression soured . "She's out for the day," she said curtly.

Rin shot Kakashi a look. When would he learn? She gave Shizune a sheepish smile. "Sorry. We didn't mean to inconvenience you. My name is Nohara Rin. You've already met Kakashi, I believe."

Shizune scowled. "I have."

"... He tends to have that effect on people. But what we're really here for –"

"Tsunade-shishou, right?" Shizune said, moving over to the kitchen to fix them something to eat. "I doubt you're here for me."

Rin winced. "Well…"

"It's all right. I wasn't expecting any differently. I must warn you though, she's not very receptive to Konoha asking her for, well, anything."

Kakashi and Rin exchanged a look again. "What does Konoha usually ask of her?" Rin asked carefully.

"I'm not sure, but the few times she received letters she threw fits," Shizune said, putting plates of food on the table. "Unless you're here for an antidote, or something. She'll lend a hand for those, every now and then."

Rin blinked. "Doesn't she – I mean, I assumed she would still be working as a doctor..."

"A doctor of her caliber would only draw unwanted attention out here. Not that she would, anyway," Shizune said, an edge of bitterness creeping into her voice. "I'm the only healer in this house, as it stands."

Something in Rin stilled. She had never met another medic who had given up that particular career path, aside from herself. Medics, even lesser skilled field medics, enjoyed a healthy dose of prestige and financial stability. Even if they could no longer work in the field, they could transfer to the hospital. It wasn't the kind of job you would just give up.

Unless you were a jinchuuriki, of course. But Tsunade wasn't. What could've happened to turn her away from both her home and the skills that had turned her into a legend?

"Pretty rigorous change of career," Kakashi said, voicing Rin's thoughts.

Shizune looked away. "She has her reasons."

Kakashi looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he squared his jaw and sat down at the table to eat. "Thanks for the food," he said.

Perhaps there was some hope for operation 'turn Kakashi into a reasonable human being', after all. A girl could hope. Rin joined Kakashi at the table and together they waited for Shizune to sit down before they ate. The meal was simple but good, and made Rin feel a heck of a lot better than the greasy hotel food she had been presented with earlier that day.

As they ate, her eyes were drawn to Shizune's hands again. Her knuckles were red and smattered with small thin scars. Her nails were clipped to the quick and meticulously cleaned. These were the hands of a doctor who had recently practiced her art.

Perhaps that's why she had been in that apartment block. Just because her teacher was no longer practicing, it didn't necessarily mean Shizune had quit as well. A medic could do a lot of good, even in a civilian city.

But not if she wanted to remain unnoticed. Rin frowned. "Shizune-san... I'm not sure how to ask you, but is it really safe for you to use medical jutsu in the city?" She asked, deciding a direct approach would be best.

Shizune stilled and put down her chopsticks. "How do you –"

"Your knuckles and fingertips are red. It's quite common, after using medical ninjutsu," Rin offered.

Shizune gave her hands a surprised look. "I didn't think of that."

"You're openly using it? That seems like a surefire way to get civvies lining up before your door," Kakashi said.

"Except that they won't," Shizune said. "They know better than to draw attention to me. I wouldn't be able to help them out if the wrong people found out about me."

"So you _are_ hiding from someone," Rin concluded.

Shizune huffed. "Yes. No. It's complicated. Look." She stood up and rummaged in one of the cupboards next to the wall. She pulled out a piece of paper and put it on the table. It was a wanted poster. A kunoichi with a scratched out headband leered back at them from a black-and-white photograph.

"She calls herself Jun. These posters used to be all over the place, but they were removed after she made a deal with the mayor. Now she can do whatever she likes. Hurt whoever she likes. She stays away from us because she knows she's no match for shishou, but at the same time shishou doesn't do anything to stop her, either." Shizune's hands hold into fists. "So I do what I can to make things a little bit easier for the people who cannot stand up to her. I'd fight Jun myself, but I wouldn't win."

Her eyes turned sad. "Jun is incredibly powerful, and she has four shinobi lieutenants. Together, they make people pay them 'taxes', with the certain knowledge that they'll lose their homes and possibly their lives if they don't. Jun only picks on the lower class, so that the town doesn't look neglected and the more influential citizens don't protest. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Keeps Iwa from finding out about her. Then again, the town is too scared of Jun to risk retribution anyway."

"Is it still safe for you here?" Rin asked, her gut churning. A single rogue shinobi could do a lot of damage amongst a civilian population.

"Safe enough. Jun knows about us but keeps away, generally speaking. Shishou's reputation protects us." Shizune's eyes dropped to the table. "Either way, we won't leave until Tsunade-shishou is ready."

A brief silence followed.

"But Tsunade-hime isn't helping anyone," Rin said incredulously. "Even though she could beat this Jun."

"I told you. She has her reasons."

Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "She's not being any good to anyone."

"She's not being any good to herself, either," Shizune bit back, eyes blazing. "She's –"

Shizune cut herself off midsentence, her anger disappearing like a deflating balloon. "I'm sorry. I realize what it must look like to you, but… There's this saying. 'If you can't take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others'. That's true for her, I think."

Kakashi shifted, and Rin found herself watching him. His expression did something complicated, and then his gaze dropped. Rin resisted the urge to grab his hand and squeeze it. Instead, she turned back to Shizune.

"I can understand that, a little," Rin said, because oh, of course she could. "But we have something very important to ask Tsunade-hime. Not as a warrior, or even as a sannin – but as the world's greatest medic. There's someone back in Konoha who needs her very much. If we could have brought her with us, we would have, but in her condition she cannot be moved. So, we came to you instead."

Shizune finally lifted her gaze from the table to search Rin's eyes. Shizune opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if she didn't know what to say. "Someone… Back in Konoha? Who cannot be moved?" She sat back in her chair, wide-eyed. "You mean you want shishou to come with you to Konoha."

Rin bit her lip. Shizune's first response wasn't promising. "We do."

Shizune stared, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, but… That's not going to happen. She's not going to come with you. Tsunade-shishou isn't going anywhere."

Rin felt herself go cold at the conviction in Shizune's voice. "Shizune, I know you want to protect her, but we have someone to protect as well –"

"I'm sorry," Shizune said forcefully. "I really am. But I don't think she'll ever go back to Konoha."

Kakashi, who had been watching them quietly, finally spoke up again. "Have you asked her?"

He sounded calm enough, but Rin saw the tension in his frame. It was the same tension she felt herself. If they couldn't convince Tsunade… Poor, sweet Kushina would never wake up, and her son would remain an orphan. Rin felt nauseous.

Shizune looked drained. Had she looked that tired all day?

"I used to ask," Shizune said. "When I was younger. I remember living there, you see. I lost my parents early on, but I lived there with my uncle until he died. I was six when we left. I was homesick for months. Every now and then, the need to go home would crop back up, but shishou insisted there was nothing for us there. I don't even have an official rank," she finished, smiling wryly.

"Do you still want to go?" Rin asked quietly.

Shizune was quiet for a moment. "I'd… Like to have a permanent home. We travel a lot. It's hard to make friends. Nowhere feels like home."

"So, go to Konoha," Kakashi said bluntly. "You're an adult, aren't you?"

Shizune glared at him. "And abandon the woman who raised me? Never."

"She loves you. Perhaps she'll follow." Kakashi shrugged.

"Not that much," Shizune scoffed, looking away. Her eyes shone wetly. She seemed to notice it at the same time that Rin did, and quickly wiped at her eyes. "This patient of yours. Who is she?" She said, changing the subject.

Rin had to swallow past the lump in her throat. Shizune doubted the love of the closest thing she had to a parent. Rin knew the feeling. It seemed that it didn't stop either of them from still loving their wayward parents, though. Rin still loved her father. Shizune still loved Tsunade.

But the context wasn't the same. Shizune wasn't broken, or host to a monster. She was a compassionate, talented, _normal_ person. The issue wasn't with her, it was with Tsunade, who suffered from some mysterious ailment that kept her from making anything of her life. So perhaps, it was something that could be changed.

"– Kushina," Kakashi was saying. "Our teacher's wife. She's in a coma."

"Oh – I'm sorry. Ever since the attack, two years ago?" Shizune replied.

"Yes."

Shizune sighed. "I wish I had been there to help out the wounded. We didn't learn of the attack until it had already ended. But if she has been in a coma for two years, I'm not sure how much even shishou could do for her."

"If anyone could do it, it's her."

The change in the air was a sudden as a midsummer thunderstorm. One moment they were talking, the next Kakashi and Rin instinctively stilled as a new chakra presence made itself known. It danced at the edges of their awareness as though it refused to let its existence be denied. It was the kind of chakra capacity that could only remain hidden if its owner really, really tried.

Minato-sensei had usually been kind enough to keep his repressed. So had Kushina.

Senju Tsunade made no such efforts. Her chakra presence loomed in their minds like an executioner's blade, sharp and unrelenting. Sanbi sat up and _took notice_. No wonder Jun and her gang knew she was here.

 _You didn't tell me this woman is a_ Senju, Sanbi crooned in the back of Rin's head, searching for footholds to claw out and take over.

Rin squared her jaw and pushed her chakra in as far she could, and Sanbi down with it. So long as she didn't have to fight…

Slow footsteps approached the front door, and then the door creaked open. Senju Tsunade frowned as she took them in with an unfocused gaze. "Visitors. Huh."

She slammed the door shut with the hand that wasn't holding a sake bottle. "Might've warned me," she muttered, and walked past them without any further acknowledgment. She put the bottle on one of the kitchen counters and turned around slowly, leaning back and tilting her head a little as she took them in.

"Tsunade-shishou." Shizune seemed to wake from her daze first and shot up to her feet. "I made lunch. There is some left, if you'd like…"

"Hmm. Thanks," Tsunade huffed, not looking away from Kakashi and Rin. Her blonde hair fell limply around her face, and although she looked youthful for her age her eyes were full of strain. She was also most definitely drunk. "Funniest thing happened today," she drawled. "I won at blackjack."

Shizune looked surprised. "You – you did?"

"Yeah. So, I stayed to have a drink. Figured I would need it."

Kakashi stood up, his face a study in repressed emotion. "Tsunade-hime. My name is Hatake Kakashi, and this is my friend, Nohara Rin. I believe you might remember me."

Tsunade's gaze swiveled back to meet his. "Huh. You've changed."

Kakashi ran a hand through his hair. "It's this revolutionary new tool, they call them scissors," he drawled back. "You might have heard of them."

Tsunade snorted. Then, her eyes landed on Rin. "You're Minato's kids. The medic and the genius," she said, in a mocking tone. "Weren't you supposed to be the next me, or something?" She asked Rin.

Rin was too stunned to answer.

Tsunade snorted again and made a dismissive gesture. "I wouldn't recommend it, anyway. Besides, then Hatake would have to go evil. And your team idiot would have to – I don't know, what's he doing anyway? Running away from the village like Jiraiya?"

"Obito is dead," Rin said.

A muscle in Kakashi's jaw jumped. Shizune went very still.

Tsunade flinched. Her gaze dropped and she turned back to the counter, moving some of the assorted bottles and plates around seemingly at random before grabbing one of the bottles and holding it up against the light. When she was satisfied, she uncorked it and took a long swallow. "Right. Knew I had forgotten something," she muttered.

" _Tsunade-shishou,"_ Shizune hissed.

Kakashi looked like he was capable of murder right about now, and Rin wasn't sure she would stop him. Nothing good had ever come from following her baser instincts, though. She took his wrist and squeezed it.

"We are here to ask you for your help," Rin said, and her voice only shook a little. She was proud of that.

"Are you asking for my help, or is Sarutobi?" Tsunade asked, one eye closed as she peered into the bottle to see if there was anything else left inside.

It took a moment for Rin to realize she meant the Hokage. "I am. We are," Rin said, pulling at Kakashi's arm to show who 'we' was. She was on his bad side, but without the mask she could see his face had relaxed just a little.

"Huh. Small victories, I guess," Tsunade said. "Why, though?"

"Kushina needs your help," Kakashi said. "She's been in a coma since the attack."

For a moment, there was something terribly vulnerable in Tsunade's expression. It disappeared almost as quickly. "Is that so?"

"We need you to get her out of it."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes in thought. She pursed her lips, drummed her fingers on the countertop. Finally, she spoke. "It's been two years. Kushina is dead. I'm sorry, kid. You'll have to go home empty-handed."

It was a good thing Rin was already holding onto Kakashi's arm, or his forward surge might have actually reached Tsunade. Instead, Rin grabbed hold of him with both hands and pulled back, despite the roaring in her ears. Kakashi might have forced the issue, but even he was sensible enough to know attacking a sannin head-on in a flash of hot rage was a really bad idea. Even for the prodigy of his generation. He fell back next to Rin, wide-eyed and shoulders heaving. Rin let go of his arm to find that her hands were shaking. She wasn't sure if it was shock, anger, or both.

"She is not dead," Kakashi growled, echoing Rin's thoughts, "but she might as well be if you don't help."

Tsunade's face tightened. "Don't blame me for things I am not responsible for, brat. I am _not_ Konoha's keeper. I refuse to be. Now, either get out of my house or make yourself useful."

With that, she turned to Shizune, visibly relaxing her shoulders and lightening her voice in a bid at nonchalance. "That Jun woman you keep going on about? One of her lieutenants had a little bit too much to drink last night. Said they're going for a raid tonight. You said you wanted to stop them, but that you needed help. Use these two, then." She gestured at Kakashi and Rin. "Anything, to get them out of my hair."

With that, she stormed out of the kitchen and disappeared into one of the other rooms, the door slamming shut behind her.

She left a deathly silence behind.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Vodka Aunt Tsunade is a real piece of work, isn't she? Don't hate her, though – living with serious grief, undiagnosed PTSD and a blood phobia without a proper support system is hell. She needs help, not hate! You'll get to see a completely different side to her in the next chapter...
> 
> Let me know what you think! Comments keep me going.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi and Shizune go out into town. Rin and Tsunade talk about what's at stake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't remember Tsunade's past, this might be where you may want to brush up on it...
> 
> Some harsher language from Tsunade in this chapter. Be warned if that's not your cup of tea.

 

Kakashi was still fuming by the time it was finally dark enough for him and Shizune to leave. The anger thrumming through his body reminded him of being twelve again, young and stupid and in pain. Unlike his twelve-year-old self, though, he knew better than to alienate his hosts even further than he already had. It had been stupid and childish to surge towards Tsunade, and he was glad Rin had been there to stop him. His action showed a lack of self-restraint he felt he really should have grown past by now. He was ANBU, for crying out loud. He was renowned for being able to keep a cool head in times of crisis. So why hadn't he been able to?

The answer to that was very simple, of course. He clenched his jaw as he landed on a flat rooftop just behind Shizune. He had lost his temper because this time, it was personal. Kushina's life lay in the balance and indirectly, so did Naruto's. They were… Family.

They deserved better than a bitter old woman who was too selfish to try, regardless of what she had been through.

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" He said, forcefully distracting himself.

Shizune snorted as she turned to look at him over her shoulder. She'd switched out her black dress for a pair of dark pants and a long-sleeved shirt covering forearm braces that could hold her poison darts. Now that the sun had gone down, she blended in almost perfectly with the shadows.

 "I knew I should have asked Rin along instead," she said. "We're doing this because we want to help people. People who don't deserve what's being done to them, even if they are from a different country than yours."

Kakashi sniffed. She made him sound terrible. "We were at war barely two years ago."

"With Iwa. Not with these people. And anyway, I was no part of that."

Kakashi couldn't make out whether she sounded pleased or disappointed. He hummed under his breath and joined her at the ledge of the roof to look across the street that lay below.

"Looks quiet enough," he murmured." What do you know of their abilities?"

"Jun is strong. Upper-level jonin strong. Her lieutenants, not so much. I'd say they're about chunin level. Three of them, anyway. I haven't seen the fourth fight."

"And what level are you at?" Kakashi asked, unable to stop himself. Well, he did need to know what his temporary teammate was capable of, and he had never seen her fight.

Shizune's eyebrow twitched in a way that was very reminiscent of her master. "Good enough to take on a few chunin, I should think," she said primly. "Don't get any ideas."

He shrugged. "Just checking. So what's the plan? Attacking them head-on doesn't seem like a great idea, if this Jun person is so strong…"

He wasn't exactly a slouch himself, but without knowing Jun's abilities and with the constraints of the city living and breathing around them, he couldn't be certain that he would win. That, and Danzou had given him permission to find Tsunade  – not to pick fights on former enemy territory.

Shizune didn't immediately answer. "Perhaps attacking them would be better."

"Oh?"

"Jun's probably not doing the raiding herself. She tends not to get her hands dirty unless she absolutely has to. Her lieutenants are rowdy and tend to be the ones to do the most damage. By which I mean roughing up the people they're exploiting, or smashing the furniture." Shizune's hands tightened around the ledge, turning her knuckles white.

Kakashi thought it through. If these guys were just thugs rather than Iwa shinobi…"Better wait until after they're done. Make it look like a robbery, or something." He held up his hands in defense when she glared at him. "I know, I know. It's just that if you barge in during the raid it will be obvious you're targeting them specifically. Jun will find out. Better for us to isolate, say, two of the lieutenants afterwards, and weaken her support. One would be even less conspicuous."

Shizune frowned. "They like the party life, that's for sure. It's not inconceivable some random shinobi passerby could end up knocking them out. Or... For one of them to disappear." A sharp smile crept onto her face.

Kakashi gave her a blank look. "Do you want to kidnap one or kill one? Because the first seemed more like your MO but the grin makes me think the second."

She punched his shoulder. "The first, of course! Who do you take me for?"

"A shinobi," Kakashi deadpanned.

"I'm a medic first, thank you very much."

"So?"

"Well, ask Rin. She's not a frontline fighter."

Kakashi stilled. Technically not, perhaps, but... "She's not a medic anymore. Anyway, still a bad excuse."

Shizune gave him a baffled look. "Not a...? How does that work?"

"I don't know. Just don't ask her, it's sensitive."

"Then what do you –"

"You shouldn't ask _me_ about it either," he said, as dryly as he could manage.

"You can't just say something like that and then never explain it!"

"I think you'll find that I can."

"... Has anyone ever told you you're an asshole?"

"Maybe. I tend not to listen."

Whatever Shizune might have wanted to say was interrupted by a drawn-out scream across the square. A moment later a door slammed open, light spilling out onto the road as a woman came tumbling onto her hands and knees. She was crying and clutching at her night clothes.

A tall, black-haired man stepped out after her, chewing gum and staring down at her with an expression of utter boredom. If not for his utter apathy in the face of her misery, he would have been quite handsome. "You should have just paid up. Would have saved you from a whole world of pain," he drawled, his voice only just loud enough for Kakashi's enhanced hearing to pick it up.

"Father, father," the woman screamed, trying to look past the tall man into the house. "Please, don't hurt him!"

Tall, dark and handsome's reply was lost by Shizune's sudden whisper. "I can't make out what he's saying, but I recognize him. He's the wildcard – I have no idea what he can do. Doesn't waste his time drinking and gambling, though, and he's Jun's favorite. Actually, I'm not sure he ever leaves her side –"

A series of loud bangs and shouts from inside the house with the woman on the street crumple and sob. "Please, please," she keened.

"No money, no protection," Tall, dark and handsome shrugged.

"No one is helping," Kakashi noted. Indeed, the other doors and windows in the street remained closed. "Too scared?"

Shizune nodded, biting her lip. "Anyone who is found helping gets the same punishment."

"Hmph. Fun little gang."

Shizune visibly had a hard time not leaping into action as the abuse continued. Kakashi didn't much enjoy the experience himself, either. Shizune was right; no one deserved this treatment, no matter which hidden village they happened to be sharing their country with. Standing by and doing nothing while he knew the perpetrators would be no match for him at all had him feeling tetchy and irritable.

They had to wait for an excruciating fifteen minutes before the noises inside finally stopped and the shinobi responsible finally filed out of the house. They were a short, brown haired man with slightly hunched shoulders and an overeager grin, and a tall woman who looked very familiar.

"Jun," Shizune breathed.

Jun looked much as she did on her wanted poster; a tall, toned woman in her late thirties with strong features, full red lips, and a buzz-cut. Her right ear was little more than a mutilated piece of skin. Around her neck, she bore an old, scratched-through Suna hitai-ate.

She wore a sardonic grin as she leaned over the sobbing woman still sitting on the street, and jingled a purse of coins before her face. "Thank you very much, milady," Jun said, in a breathy, melodic voice.

The woman on the street cringed and made herself even smaller. Her sobs intensified. The tall black-haired man sighed and made a hand sign before placing his hand on her head. Her body went limp and she fell without a sound.

Jun grinned. Tall, dark and handsome bounced his eyebrows. The brown-haired man stayed at a slight distance and laughed nervously.

 Jun's gaze cut to him, and she made a sharp gesture with her head. "Go on, go. You can't wait to go back to your little games, can you? Anyway, Toshiro-kun and I have business of our own." She smiled seductively and ran her hand up Tall, dark and handsome's arm. "Money always gets me in the mood."

Shizune made a soft, disgusted sound.

Jun and her lover ambled away as though they were merely a couple enjoying the sights rather than hardened criminals who had just hurt someone to get their money. Their weaselly companion watched them go until they turned the corner, then glanced down at the woman still unconscious on the street. He gave her a swift, hard kick to the ribs, giggled, and then scurried off into the shadows.

"Get him," Shizune hissed. "I will check up on the family."

Kakashi nodded, and allowed himself to be cloaked in shadow.

* * *

 

Rin regretted not going with Kakashi and Shizune almost instantly. Sure, she had a good excuse in that she couldn't hide anywhere near as well as they could, but not going felt too much like cowardice for her liking. Especially since she had nothing to do but sit and twiddle her thumbs as her hostess, for lack of a better word, snored off her hangover in the bedroom.

So Rin had grabbed a notepad and the one remaining containment seal from Kakashi's backpack, and had started to copy the intricate lines and commit them to memory. It was slow going – her hand wasn't practiced enough to be steady, and she found she kept overlooking the little squiggly lines squeezed between the thicker, straighter circles. She couldn't discern any kind of pattern, and wondered at Minato-sensei's ability to come up with something this complicated on the fly.

Or for that matter, how on Earth Kakashi thought he could progress and improve his skill at sealing without anyone to teach him. He had to know enough of the basics to be able to expand on them… She had seen the wards he liked to place on their apartment, of course. Whenever they got back home, she would have to look at them more closely and see how they differed from the one she was currently looking at.

Frankly, it might as well have been advanced algebra for all that she could understand it, but even algebra could be learned if you put enough time in. Rin was clever – it would be worth taking the time to learn the basics. There was no such thing as having too much knowledge.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a strangled shout from the bedroom. Rin's heart leapt. Another moan, then a few unintelligible words and –

Rin ripped open the bedroom door, but there was no assassin waiting for her on the other side, no burglar regretting his choice of target, no danger at all. There was only Tsunade, tangled up in her sheets and writhing as if she was in pain. "No, nonono no..."

Rin's breath hitched. The bedroom was windowless and dark, only illuminated by the room behind her. Her hand found the light switch and the bulb overhead flickered to life, revealing Tsunade's screwed up face. "No," she groaned again.

" Tsunade-hime," Rin said, stepping forward carefully. She didn't want to get too close. "You have to wake up. You're having a nightmare."

Tsunade threw her head to the side. She clawed at the sheets, tearing away a piece of fabric like paper. Perhaps it was the sound of tearing fabric that woke her up, but she shot up like a Jack-in-the-Box, her brown eyes blind with panic.

" Tsunade-hime," Rin repeated. Easy, now. "You had a nightmare. It's okay – you're safe."

Slowly, the panic receded from Tsunade-hime's eyes. It was replaced by a terrible weariness, which in a way was worse. Her gaze dropped to her lap, to her tightly balled fists. She uncurled her fingers slowly, revealing crescent-shaped cuts in her palms. She let out a shaky breath as blood curled away from one of the deeper wounds.

Rin bit her lip. "Do you have any antiseptic in the house?" She asked, approaching the older woman as she would a cornered dog. She sat down on the edge of the bed and reached out for Tsunade's hands.

Tsunade snatched them away. "It's fine, it'll heal on its own," she said hoarsely.

"If you would let me look at them –"

"I said it's _fine_. Just get me some Band-Aids," Tsunade said, looking away.

Rin sighed. Well, at least she had some experience with stubborn patients. "Where –?"

"Bathroom."

Rin nodded. A quick search in the bathroom resulted in her finding a small med-kit, old but well-stocked. The Band-Aids were colorful and clearly meant for children, but that would hardly matter. She took them, as well as a bottle of disinfectant, and returned to the bedroom.

The bed was abandoned, sheets kicked away, and the door to the living room gaped open. Rin followed through and found Tsunade sitting at the table, face in her hands.

The best thing to do for a recalcitrant patient, Rin knew, was to take charge as a mother would of her child; be the voice of authority and comfort, and override any fleeing attempts with logic.

"Don't make it worse," she said, gently pulling on Tsunade's right wrist and uncurling her fingers.

Tsunade gave her a bleary eyed look, but miraculously, didn't protest. "Who are you again?" She croaked.

"Rin. We met earlier this afternoon, remember?"

"Vaguely." A beat. "Namikaze's student."

"That's right," Rin said, putting the antiseptic on a cloth and dabbing the cuts with them. She noticed Tsunade was deliberately looking the other way. "Here to ask you for your help," she added.

Tsunade huffed. "Didn't think anyone would find me."

"Kakashi has unusual skills," Rin said. The cuts weren't particularly deep. They would heal fine on their own.

"Kakashi… Hatake, right? What's he done with his hair?"

Rin couldn't stop herself from smiling. Even to someone who barely knew him, Kakashi without his trademark hair was a difficult concept. "It's too distinctive. We didn't want anyone to recognize him out here."

"Hmph. He's just a kid. Who's going to recognize him?"

"He's not your average kid." Rin hummed thoughtfully and took Tsunade's other wrist. Again, Tsunade let her, although she didn't look particularly happy about it.

"Aren't you a medic? Can't you just close them without all this fussing?" Tsunade asked, drawing a circle on the table with her already treated hand. Her eyes were boring holes into the wall behind them.

"I'm not, and anyway, it would be a waste of chakra."

Tsunade watched her with suspicious eyes. "Not a...? Aren't you little miss 'field transplant at twelve'? What do you mean, you're not a medic?"

Rin's stomach turned. "You've heard about that?"

Tsunade snorted. "I have. You impressed quite a few people with that. Who did you implant it to?"

"I – I figured you would know that, too."

"I stopped listening the moment it wasn't about medical ninjutsu anymore."

Rin stopped her movements. Tsunade's second hand was fine, anyway. A laugh climbed its way up into Rin's mouth. In a strange way, Tsunade reminded her of Kakashi. "Which is why you didn't know about Obito either," she said softly.

Tsunade's face softened. She sniffed. "Yeah. Sorry about that. Sometimes, when I have too much to drink..." She shrugged.

Rin waited for her to finish her sentence, but it seemed that was all Tsunade had to say about the subject.

"It was Obito's eye," Rin finally said. "He gave it to Kakashi."

Tsunade stilled. Her expression did something complicated, and then she nodded. "And you were twelve," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Yes."

Tsunade didn't say anything for a moment, but then a chuckle escaped her. "Fucking Konoha," she said.

Rin looked away. "Konoha didn't mean for it to –"

"Then they shouldn't send kids to war," Tsunade snapped. "Breaking young medics' backs."

 Rin leaned back in her own chair as a chill ran up her spine. Sanbi chuckled. Perhaps Tsunade wasn't wrong, but thinking it – feeling it – felt like a betrayal. Blasphemy. Minato had sent them out. Minato would never have hurt them. Or Sarutobi. They were good people.

Right?

Her mind caught onto something else Tsunade had said. "Why do you think that's the last time I healed anyone? The transplant?" She asked, before she could think better of it.

"Isn't it?" Tsunade leaned in, her eyes suddenly keen. Rin swallowed. She had almost forgotten that behind the veneer of drunkenness and fear lay one of the world's most formidable minds.

Rin squared her jaw, but she didn't know what to say. She wasn't a natural liar; aside from the one lie that kept her alive she rarely spoke anything but the truth. Her mind wasn't like Kakashi's, who could spin out new truths like they were jutsu.

"It was a little later," she said, trying to ignore the pounding of her heart.

Tsunade leaned back, clearly suspicious, but the expression slowly melted off her face. "Right," she said, then let out a long sigh. "Don't suppose it's any of my damn business," she muttered.

Tsunade had stopped being a medic somewhere along the way, too. Perhaps she could understand not wanting to share her reasons. Although… Rin thought of how she had avoided looking at her own injuries. What had that been about? Rin didn't dare to ask.

The awkward silence was broken when Tsunade, still drawing circles on the table, ran her fingers across Rin's attempts at copying the containment seal. Tsunade's brow furrowed, and she pulled the sheets towards herself. "What's this?" She muttered, eyes flicking over the original.

"Ah, I –" Rin started, but her words failed her once more.

"This is some kind of repression seal, isn't it? What do you have that for?" Tsunade asked, turning the seal over a few times. "Good work, too."

"You're – you're a seals expert?"

Tsunade gave her a sharp look. "You think Uzumaki Mito would let her granddaughter become a kunoichi without teaching her anything?"

Rin opened and closed her mouth uselessly. Right. _Right_. She was talking to a legend.

Tsunade snorted at her expression and turned back to the seal. "Is this Namikaze's work? I recognize his style – very precise."

"Y-yes. It is."

"For Hatake's eye, is it?"

Rin leapt for the opportunity like a drowning man would a log. "Yes! He has trouble regulating the in and output of his chakra."

Tsunade frowned a little deeper, but if she noticed Rin's slightly too fast response she didn't say anything. "This is way too strong, though. Stupid kid could end up killing himself. Doesn't he know what he's doing?"

"He's... Still learning," Rin said, mentally apologizing to Kakashi for making him look bad in front of Tsunade. "This is just a template."

"Hmm." Tsunade pursed her lips and put the seal back onto the table. "He'd be better off with a seal that regulates rather than contains.

"Thing is though, you were trying to copy the seal, not adjust it," she continued, pointing at Rin's work. "Which makes me think this repression seal is of some use to you as it is. I mean, if the two of you are as brilliant as Jiraiya suggested..."

Tsunade didn't look up once as she spoke, but there was no mistaking her tone. She knew something was off.

Rin squared her jaw. Did Tsunade know her grandmother had been a jinchuuriki? Mito had died shortly before Rin was born, which would have placed Tsunade in her early twenties. Plenty of time to find out. Did she know Kushina was a jinchuuriki, for that matter? How much could Rin reveal?

Then again, they could hardly expect Tsunade to heal Kushina without telling her about the enormous, fox-shaped elephant in the room.

Rin wasn't good with lies, but she could bend the truth a little.

"How well do you know Kushina-san?" Rin asked finally.

Tsunade blinked. She clearly hadn't expected that question. "Not extremely well, admittedly."

"Do you know of her... Status, in the village?"

"Status? How do you...?"

"That she is your grandmother's successor?" Rin asked.

The frown finally fell away from Tsunade's face. It made her look younger, more like the woman Rin suspected she had been when she had earned her nickname. A muscle twitched underneath Tsunade's eye. "Frankly," she finally said, "I'm more surprised _you_ know about that."

Rin smiled faintly. _That, and more_. "Minato sensei told us, a long time ago."

Tsunade's gaze fell once more unto the suppression seal. "This is for Kushina?" She asked.

"It's meant to repress out-of-control jinchuuriki," Rin said truthfully. It didn't feel fair to lie by omission, but she couldn't bring herself to do otherwise. The thought of revealing herself was too big, too frightening. It was the part of her that she liked least. The part of her that was afraid to tell anyone was her second least favorite.

"You think I can wake her up. And that she might lose control when she does," Tsunade stated, breaking Rin out her thoughts.

"She's not in a normal coma. She's in a coma because kyuubi was ripped out of her body, split in half, and then forced back in." Rin shivered at the thought. She remembered feeling like her body was torn apart, every muscle stretching, every bone breaking, her chakra wheeling and almost vanishing as something so much bigger than herself was forced into the seal on her own stomach. The pain of it had been too much for her brain to comprehend, as though it simply shut down and refus from ed to acknowledge what was happening. Shock, perhaps. Kushina had lived through that and more, _while giving birth_. Kushina was made of diamond.

"And when she does wake up," Rin forced herself to say, "it will be to the discovery that the love of her life is dead and that she has missed the first few years of her child's existence."

It hurt just to say it.

Tsunade flinched. Her hands balled into fists and she stood up, pacing across the room to look out of the window, the line of her shoulders tense. "Then isn't it better for her not to wake up?" She said, almost too low for Rin to understand.

Anger flashed through Rin's stomach, briefly peaking Sanbi's attention. "She can go on with her life. And her orphan son will have a mother," she bit out. "And it will hurt, yes, but she is more than just sensei's wife. She is her own person, and she deserves – she –"

Rin realized, much to her surprise, that she was crying. Hot tears dripped across her cheeks and her throat felt constricted and painful. She missed Kushina, _so much_. And Minato, _oh_ – she missed their laughter, their stupid jokes, their terrible taste in food, the way they had so selflessly embraced Kakashi, Obito and Rin into this makeshift little family...

But they would never have Minato back, or Obito. Kushina, at least, still had a chance. Their family of two could be a family of four, with Kushina and Naruto and Kakashi and Rin herself. There could be laughter again, and terrible jokes, and the unhealthiest diet this side of the equator, and... And she really, really wanted Kushina and Naruto to meet.

Tsunade watched her with an unreadable expression. "You're not supposed to cry. Rule 25," she said, without much conviction.

"Rule 25 only counts during battle."

Tsunade smirked, then let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Yeah – fair enough. Fair enough, kid." She turned back to the window. It had gone dark outside, but the stars remained obscured behind a much taller buildings on the other side of the street. Instead, the lights of the city danced across the glass, casting a warm orange glow.

"You still love Konoha, don't you, kid?" Tsunade asked quietly. "You still have faith in it. How come?"

Rin shrugged, wiping at her tears. She should have felt more self-conscious, perhaps, but she couldn't bring herself to care. "I don't know. The people, I guess. My friends. I don't – I know it's not perfect."

Tsunade snorted."' Not perfect', ha. Putting it mildly," she muttered. "Konoha is a shitfest, kid. But so are all shinobi villages."

"Yeah I – I got that impression," Rin sniffed, Roshi's voice echoing through her memory.

"Better to get away from it. Better not to get involved."

Rin shook her head. "I can't walk away from it."

"Why not?"

Rin shrugged again. "It's home," she said.

Tsunade sighed softly. "You are still young, I suppose," she said.

"So's most of the village," Rin said, not understanding.

"You don't realize yet that you have a choice, that you could walk away –" Tsunade cut herself off. "None of you do." She looked surprised at her own words. "But then it's not a choice for most, is it..?"

"A choice? What do you mean?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Never you mind." She looked deep in thought as she turned back to the window. The light from outside cast her in a golden hue.

"Go to bed," she said, voice taking on a commanding note. "You can take the couch. There should be extra blankets in Shizune's room."

With that, she turned and entered her bedroom, shutting the door behind her and leaving Rin behind with an unsettling sense of confusion.

 

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Real life is kind of awful at the moment so I could use a bit of cheer! This is probably my favorite chapter so far, though. Next chapter should be a bit more upbeat.
> 
>  


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin has a foolish idea, and for once Kakashi has to be the voice of reason – although her argument is pretty convincing.It's a shame her plan has the potential to go south, fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your lovely and overwhelming response to the previous chapter! Real life can be tough sometimes, so it's always a great joy to get away for a bit and read your comments:)
> 
> I'm not 100% happy with this one, but I hope it's still fun.

 

It wasn't much of a match, as far as fights went. Mister Weasel, as Kakashi had dubbed him, could perhaps flatteringly be called chunin-level. Kakashi, who had never been one for flattering people, decided 'barely qualified genin' was a more appropriate moniker by far.

It took a single surge of speed to leap out of the shadows and knock him out. The man didn't even see him coming.

One point in Mister Weasel's favor was that he was shorter than Kakashi, who, still caught in the midst of teenage insecurity, appreciated this for more reasons than just that it made him easier to carry. Fortunately, it didn't take very long before he shouldered the door to Shizune's apartment open and unceremoniously dropped his unconscious burden to the floor.

Rin screamed.

In hindsight, this seemed like a pretty sensible way to respond when you're woken up in the middle of the night by your friend barging through the door and dropping a body to the floor.

That was hindsight, though.

"Calm down, it's only me," Kakashi said, pushing the door closed behind him and flipping the light switch on.

Rin stared at him from where she was sitting on the couch, bare legs pulled up to her chest and still blinking the sleep from her eyes. Incredulity warred with anger on her face as she shifted and reached down to grab the blanket she had dropped to floor in her shock.

Kakashi pointedly ignored the way his face heated up and gently kicked Mister Weasel in the leg. "Do you think they have any ropes lying around in this place?"

Rin opened and closed her mouth a few times. "You –" she began.

Whatever she had wanted to say was lost when the door to Tsunade's bedroom exploded from the inside out. "What the hell –?" Tsunade roared, looking every inch the terrifying legend she had once been, assuming she had usually worn night clothes to battlefields. She stopped when she saw Kakashi and Rin, and then looked at the body on the floor. "The _hell_?"

"There's really no need for everyone to get so upset," Kakashi said, holding up his hands.

" _Isn't there_?" Rin shouted, just as Tsunade dropped what was left of her bedroom door.

"It's not like he's dead or anything," Kakashi shrugged. "So, ropes?"

"He's _not_?"

"Mahh, did you think I would bring a corpse home?"

" _I wouldn't put it past you_."

"There's really no need to be so rude –"

"Kakashi, why on earth –"

"Both of you, shut up!" Tsunade cried out, her voice easily drowning out theirs. "Why the hell is there a body in my living room?" She said, once she had their attention.

"Technically, he's a person," Kakashi said.

" _Stop mouthing off and answer my question_."

Kakashi resisted the urge to cringe, but only just. Tsunade was exhibiting a terrifying amount of Kushina-ness at the moment. Perhaps it was their Uzumaki blood. "His name is Mister Weasel –"

"I _doubt_ that," Rin muttered.

"– And he's part of Jun's gang. We caught him roughing up a family who hadn't paid them in a while." Finally, Kakashi was pleased to note, their expressions changed. "Don't worry; Shizune is looking after them," he added.

"And why did you bring him here, exactly?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, we have to keep him _somewhere_."

"You want to turn my house into a prison," deadpanned Tsunade.

"Only temporarily," Kakashi shrugged. "We can ask him a few questions, learn a few things about Jun..."

Rin pinched the bridge of her nose. "It shouldn't make sense, but for some reason it does," she groaned.

Kakashi smiled.

"Put him in Shizune's room, then," Tsunade said, looking crankier by the minute. "Just… _Stop waking me up_." And with that, she shuffled back into her bedroom, realized she no longer had a door, grabbed her wardrobe and shoved it in front of her door opening like it weighed nothing, completing her cavewoman impression.

"That works," Kakashi said, and went looking for some rope. Rin buried her face in her hands.

* * *

                                                                                                           Aside from one further disturbance ("we probably should have warned Shizune about the tied-up stranger in her bedroom," Kakashi said), the rest of the night passed quietly. Shizune had climbed over Tsunade's wardrobe to find a place to sleep, Rin had returned to the couch, and Kakashi had found himself on the floor. "Karma," Shizune had muttered, which wasn't very charitable.

Mister Weasel must've woken up at some point during the night, but the gag had kept him from kicking up too much of a fuss. He stared at them, wide-eyed and beyond confused, when they filed into Shizune's room after breakfast to observe him.

"Yeah, I'd buy it," Tsunade said, unprompted.

"Buy what?" Rin asked.

"That he got drunk or high and ended up in a ditch somewhere. I doubt they will go looking for him anytime soon," Tsunade said. "He looks the type."

Broad daylight wasn't doing Mister Weasel any favors, that was for sure. His hair was scraggly and thin, emphasizing the unhealthy pallor and hollow cheeks. His clothes were filthy and unkempt, and he smelled like he only rarely troubled with personal grooming. Kakashi wrinkled his nose.

Shizune, in particular, looked at him like he was dirt underneath her boots. "You hurt someone very badly last night," she said, directly addressing their prisoner. "If it wasn't for me, it would have taken him months to recover. For that, I'll make sure you're punished."

She turned to the others, her black eyes turned as hard as flint. "I'll question him. This was my idea, after all. You guys can wait outside."

Tsunade shrugged and left, seemingly indifferent. By the time Kakashi and Rin followed her out, she had already left the apartment, probably off to gamble again. Rin's face fell and she dropped down onto the couch, as if defeated.

"Konoha wasn't built in a day, either," Kakashi reminded her, leaning against the table with his hip. "She's obviously set in her ways; she won't just come along and do what we want."

"I know that," Rin said, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's just… She could do so much, for so many people. You should have heard her yesterday. She's so _smart_ , Kakashi. One look at the containment seal and she knew what it was."

Kakashi's heart stuttered. "The _containment_ seal? Does she know –?"

"About _Kushina_ , yes," Rin said sharply, cutting him off before he could say anything incriminating. "Has known all along, I think. And she doesn't seem very bothered by it." Her expression softened. "Which is…" She shrugged.

"Nice," Kakashi said for her.

Rin smiled. "Well, yes." Then, her smile faded and her gaze fell to her hands fidgeting restlessly. Something in his chest clenched at the sight.

"I've been thinking I should tell Kurenai," she finally said.

"Really?" Kakashi tried to keep the astonishment out of his voice.

"I hate lying to her. And I think... If she's as good a friend as I think she is, she won't... Well. She might be more upset with me not telling her than the actual thing I told her." Rin finally looked up to give him a small, self-deprecating smile.

"Do you want to tell her?" Kakashi asked, crossing his arms over his chest, unsure of what else to say.

"I'd... Like to know where she stands, on the matter. How true our friendship is."

Kakashi nodded. It was sound logic, and he could understand why Rin would want it, but what if her estimation of Kurenai was wrong? Kakashi didn't know Kurenai that well himself...

He remembered something else. "Asuma knows what Naruto is," he offered.

Rin startled visibly. "How? Sandaime?"

"Must be. But if it helps, Asuma didn't seem too judgy. Awkward as hell, but not on purpose."

"Not on purpose," Rin repeated.

"Like how sometimes you can feel one thing but know it to be wrong? So you question that feeling and give it a prod in the right direction. So, maybe a part of him doesn't like it, but a bigger part of him knows that it's prejudice." Kakashi shrugged. Like how sometimes, his heart still wanted to choose the rules over what he knew to be right. He was still reprogramming, or something.

"I suppose that's better than outright rejection," Rin said softly. "Dad didn't even try."

Kakashi didn't know how to reply to that. He couldn't imagine his own father doing the same thing, had he still been alive. Sakumo would have fought off the entire village if he'd thought Kakashi would benefit.

If only he fought so hard for himself. Sometimes, Kakashi missed him so much it physically ached.

"And I know that dad didn't really understand," Rin continued unexpectedly, "and maybe that's part of the reason why he rejected me, but the way he _looked_ at me. Like I wasn't even the same person." She buried her face in her hands, although her breathing remained even.

"Maybe he is just a dick," Kakashi said.

Rin snorted. "Diplomatic as ever, Kakashi." Her voice was muffled by her hands.

"I do try."

"I guess I'm just scared Kurenai will do the same thing," Rin said. "That she will turn out to be someone I never really knew."

Kakashi's expression softened. "She can't tell anyone. If she tells anyone..."

"Exactly. But also, I don't want to lose her friendship."

"Is she really your friend if she doesn't know all of you?" He asked, quite curious to know the answer himself.

"Maybe. I don't know. It's not like the parts she sees of me aren't real."

Kakashi sighed. "But it would be easier without the lie, right?"

"Yeah." Rin's voice sounded a little thick.

Kakashi pursed his lips in thought, but his mind drew blanks. There was only one thing he knew to say. "Well. If I can help, somehow…"

"Would you come with me? If I decide to tell her?" Rin blurted immediately, her eyes wide and shining.

He gaped back at her. That wasn't really the request he had been expecting, but... "Yeah. Sure." If only to smite Kurenai if she dared to reject Rin for being a jinchuuriki.

Rin gave him a watery smile. Her right hand came up in an open gesture, but she dropped it before he could do anything but look at it. Her cheeks flushed. There were at least five feet between them. Had she... Wanted him to take her hand?

The awkward moment was interrupted when Shizune entered the living room with a contented sigh. "There. That didn't take a lot of effort at all," she said.

"That was quick," Kakashi drawled, forcing himself to look away from Rin. "He's not very brave, is he?"

"Oh, not at all," Shizune agreed. "And absolutely terrified of his boss, but he has heard of Tsunade-shishou and fears her even more, so... I may have told him she would be more than happy to take over interrogating." She smiled wickedly, and Kakashi decided then and there that he liked her after all.

"So… What did he tell you?" Rin asked. Perhaps her voice wasn't quite as strong as usual or her eyes a little red, but Shizune didn't comment on either. Good. More points in her favor.

"For one thing, my hypothesis was correct. They make people pay them protection money, the people they need protecting from being the other half of Jun's gang. If they don't pay the first time, Jun will send out a few people to rough them up. If they don't pay a second time, she will raze down their house. No one has failed to pay her a second time." Shizune frowned and folded her arms around herself. "Apparently, Jun made a pretty convincing argument for it when she first arrived in town. Took down a large silo with a single jutsu."

Well, that wasn't so far out of the reach of possibility, power wise. A good earth jutsu could ruin its foundations, for example; that's how Kakashi would have done it. It would take a decent amount of chakra but any jounin or skilled  chunin could bring down a building. But to a civilian, that would seem like the work of a God.

"Did he say how she did it?" He asked anyway.

Shizune met his eyes. "She melted it."

Oh. That was less conventional. "Melted it how?"

"The silo was made of metal. She used heat. The bits that didn't explode melted. Made it clear that she could create an explosion to achieve a similar effect on a stone house."

'Less conventional' became 'rare and highly skilled' in Kakashi's mind. "So, she uses fire jutsu?"

Shizune nodded. "At an insane level. I don't think I could even get close."

So, her natural opponent would be…

"I'm ... Good with water jutsu," Rin offered, because damn her, of course she did.

"No," Kakashi said.

That earned him a tough stare. "You know I'm good," Rin said.

"You are, but you're not experienced. It makes a huge difference."

"How will I gain experience if I never try?"

"That doesn't mean you have to jump in at the deep end," Kakashi argued, at war with his instincts. "You know what the risks are."

"I do, I just – I'm tired of being so _useless_ ," Rin said. "I can fight. I really, really can." She raised her eyebrows as if to remind him what she would be capable of in a full flight. Like she had to tell him. He remembered her fight with Kuriarare. He also remembered what it had almost cost her. What it had cost both of them.

"I just don't think it's worth the risk," he said, looking away.

"Well, if you don't mind me butting in, it's not like she would have to fight Jun on her own," Shizune reminded them both. "All three of us against one? I like those odds a lot better. As for whether it's worth it," she frowned, "the people of this town are being exploited. They have to live in fear every day, and no one is doing anything about it. Almost every day someone comes to me asking me to patch up their loved one, or tell me whether there are any alternatives for the medication they cannot afford. It's _horrible_."

Sure, that did sound pretty bad, but it wasn't what they had come here for at all. It was an unnecessary risk, a foolish choice, a –

"I will help you," Rin said, standing up from the couch. "No one should have to live in fear."

Kakashi was... Not as surprised as he might have been. Like he'd said: Rin was a good person. Only this time, he was sure it would come back to bite her. "Rin," he began.

"I know it's a risk," Rin said, "but what if we can lure Jun to the outskirts of the city? Somewhere there won't be any collateral damage? I mean, we already have a hostage."

"It's reckless," he said.

"It's _something_." Rin's eyes burned. "I want to do _something_. If only to prove that I can."

"And what do we get in return?" Kakashi asked Shizune, turning his head to look at her and ignoring Rin's scandalized expression. "It's not that I don't want to help these people, but you don't understand the stakes."

Like having Sanbi go on a rampage, for example. Like Rin _dying_. Selfishly, he preferred the thought of a city in fear to that.

Shizune looked stricken. "I don't understand the stakes?" She scoffed. "I have been living in this hellhole for a _year_. I hate it here. You've only been around for a day, you have no idea what it's like to live here. What they have done to this town. I want to leave so badly, but the moment I do is the moment they lose their last bit of protection. Some of them don't even have money to visit a conventional doctor. I'm all there is for them."

They glared at each other in silence, each fighting for an entirely different cause. Kakashi knew there was no point in arguing so long as Shizune didn't know the whole truth, so he turned back to Rin.

Kakashi didn't try to hide his disappointment. Rin was a good person, yes – the best person he knew, truthfully. She was also a reckless idiot who didn't always think things through, when pushed into a corner. If she lost control, even in the outskirts of town, even with the seal, it would be an unmitigated disaster. Sanbi loose on Iwa territory? That was the sort of thing that could trigger _war_.

He shook his head. Why did she have to be so – so – "This is a terrible idea," he said. _Why is it that every time you fight it's in a situation that could go to hell in a heartbeat?_ _Why can't you just…_

Let me take care of it, he thought, but didn't say. Sit back and be safe, fight only in controlled circumstances. When she was sure she could win. He remembered the roar of Kyuubi.

Her jaw clenched. "If you really feel that way, perhaps you should have sent me home sooner," she said, a tremor in her voice.

Well. She wasn't wrong. But there would be hell to pay when they got home, regardless of how things would end. There was a reason she wasn't allowed to leave the village.

"I'm not going to pull rank on you," he said slowly, feeling too much like ANBU and hating himself for it, "because you're my friend. But if you really want to do this, I want to know that you're aware of the risks. _All_ of the risks. If we fail, we could lose everything. This is our only chance."

Rin swallowed. She looked pale and tired in the badly lit living room. "We have the seal, if it comes to that. And I trust your strength. I want to do this."

His strength, ha! One powerful lightning jutsu and a mutated bloodline limit he couldn't hope to control was to stand between this town and total destruction? He needed to say no. They needed to put a stop to this.

But he wouldn't, for the exact same reason that he hadn't sent her back home or refused to take her along in the first place; because he didn't want her to remain a slave to her circumstances, forever locked up in a gilded cage. Because he knew that could break her.

"You're an idiot," he said, "but so am I. I will help you, but if things go south I _will_ pull you out."

Rin's chin pushed out stubbornly, but she nodded. "If there's no other choice."

Their gaze held, neither of them quite willing to look away and give in. In his mind, Kakashi was already thinking of ways he could curb the fight if it got out of hand. Undoubtedly, Rin was trying to think of ways to _win_ it.

"You know, I have a feeling you're hiding something for me," Shizune piped up. "Both of you."

She looked between them with stern eyes. "If it could compromise the situation, I need to know about it."

"It's nothing," Rin said, just as Kakashi said, "We have it well in hand."

"I sure hope so, because if this gets out of control hundreds of lives could be at stake," Shizune said bluntly, completely unaware of just how right she was. "So don't give me false hope that you can really help if you're just going to make things worse."

Rin finally looked away. Kakashi could see her knuckles go white as she tightened her fists. How would it feel, he wondered, to know that every time you try to help you also risk endangering the people you want to help? Especially to a former medic ?

He crossed his arms over his chest and suppressed a shudder. "All right. If we're going to do this, we're going to need a _plan_ ," he said, his mind already working on several different options. As he looked into their hopeful eyes, he could only hope they weren't about to make the biggest mistake of their lives.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: The fight for Ishitani begins!
> 
> Character development note: I think regeneration kashi turns into his annoying adult self whenever he feels in control of the situation. Now watch me forget about this half the time.
> 
> As for Rin, her desire to feel useful and help others is so strong that it overrides her concerns for safety… She wants to feel like she used to, but is that still possible when she is a jinchuuriki instead of a medic?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi runs into trouble and things move faster than intended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone up for a bit of fighting?

The building Jun kept her headquarters in suited her, Kakashi thought. It was a tall, blocky thing that towered over the buildings surrounding it, casting them in shadows during the day and robbing them of the stars at night. It was too ugly to garner attention, and yet too big to ignore.

At least at night, no one would notice Kakashi scaling its side.

Kakashi liked heights; he liked the wind ruffling at his hair and clothes, liked the thrill of being entirely dependent on his own strength to survive, even liked the physical exertion as it strained and soured his muscles. Back home, he could spend hours climbing cliff faces without so much as the benefit of his chakra. Out here, he didn't have the luxury of time. That didn't mean he couldn't take a peek over his shoulder and look out over the city, though. It made him feel… In control, for once. He could almost lose himself to the sensation.

But there were matters to take care of. Things to arrange. Treasures to steal, hostages to… Hold hostage, and a best friend to keep from doing something stupid. So, he tore his gaze away from the thousands of little lights below him and returned his focus to the grainy texture underneath his palms.

The best way to climb the tower without being noticed was to hunker close to its surface, hands and feet infused with chakra. It wasn't as quick as running, but it would do the job. Downstairs, Shizune was waiting.

Now, if Kakashi was the one who owned a ridiculous metal tower where he kept his secret headquarters, he'd put all the valuables up top. Better yet, keep it somewhere only a shinobi could reach it – say, a room that could only be accessed from the outside – and you can limit your list of possible perpetrators to your own little gang if something is stolen.

Jun, it seemed, had had the same thought. The only way to enter the peculiar pyramid shaped top of the tower was via a window on the outside. There wasn't even a ladder. If you didn't have chakra, you couldn't enter. Not safely, anyway. Good thing Kakashi did have chakra. All he would have to do was break the lock.

He spidered up the last few feet separating him from the window, and then crouched next to it. Gravity pulled at him right away, straining his core muscles. He pulled up his eye patch and let Obito's eye check for warding seals. The world briefly swayed as his brain tried to merge the input from the normal eye with the impossible, logic defying signals it received from the sharingan. He didn't see any wards, so he touched the lock and took a moment to figure out what kind of lock it was.

He pulled out his lock pick, and set to work. After a moment, something clicked and the window swung open. Kakashi jumped in, left eye still open. No one around.

He sniffed. Through the barrier of his mask (which he could finally wear, thank whatever God would deign to listen) he could tell the room had been visited recently, by only two people. Two people, who had… He wrinkled his nose. Done more in this room than just put money in the safe, judging by the smell.

Jun and her lover, probably. _Have mercy on my sixteen-year-old nose_. Cheeks a little flushed, Kakashi pushed past the unpleasantness to isolate their individual scents and commit them to memory.

He stepped around the room, rifling through the documents laying haphazardly on the desk to the left. Names, numbers… These looked like accounting files. Very organized of Ms. Coercion. Another file contained a list of assets. Kakashi memorized them with the sharingan. But where was the money?

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, focusing only on the smells around him. If he focused for long enough, he could separate different smells and date them. There were the entwined scents of the two lovers, heading for the desk (oh, _ew_ ), there was a separate strand of smell heading for the chair in the corner, and there... The deeper of the two scents headed for the wall opposite the window.

Kakashi opened his eyes again. Oh, _classic_. The safe was hidden behind the traditional block print painting hanging off the wall. Kakashi smiled and gingerly took the painting of the wall to reveal the safe. It looked like a fairly complicated one – a lock pick wouldn't be enough.

"Mahh, fair is fair," Kakashi muttered to himself. It was rather the point that he would be noticed eventually. Now, exploding tags? No, he would blow himself and half the tower up. Something more subtle, then…

Kakashi channeled Chidori into his first two fingers and punched through the safe door like it was made of butter. It gave a very satisfying shriek.

There. _Subtle_.

Half a second later, a civilian safety alarm started blaring. Kakashi laughed quietly to himself, and, as he shoveled the contents of the safe into his backpack with one hand, pinned the note Rin had painstakingly written inside the safe.

The only thing he hadn't counted on was Tall, Dark and Handsome blocking the exit when he turned around.

Kakashi managed a smile. "Hi," he said, waving.

Tall, Dark and Handsome returned a faint smile. "Hi kid. Just so you know, this is fundamentally stupid on your part."

Kakashi shrugged. "That seems to be my niche in life."

Tall, Dark and Handsome grinned. Then he threw up his hands in a quick focusing seal, and _screamed_.

For a moment Kakashi was sure all the glass in the building had burst. The world became sharp and edged, buzzing and screeching and _hurting,_ everything so loud that he was sure his eardrums would rupture. Putting his hands to his ears barely made a difference.

Auditory genjutsu, his brain supplied him, but his eye told him a different story. This wasn't an illusion. Tall, Dark and Handsome was actually manipulating sound. His voice, weaponized. Strong enough to make Kakashi's teeth chatter. Admir will ing your opponent's jutsu while in combat was usually frowned upon, but _damn_.

Still, best get to work. With his hands still clamped to his ears, Kakashi forced his gaze up and pushed chakra into the sharingan to create a simple illusion. Tall, Dark and Handsome stumbled, and in his confusion that horrific scream finally stopped. Well, even he needed to breathe. Hard to do that when your brain was telling you you were choking.

As Tall, Dark and Handsome raised his hands to break the illusion, Kakashi pushed off the ground towards him with all the speed he could muster. No need to kill him – Tall, Dark and Handsome was the messenger boy – but Kakashi really needed to get _out_. Without the treasure they would only have Mister weasel as hostage, and Kakashi had a sneaking suspicion that wouldn't be enough to draw Jun's attention.

He reached Tall, Dark and Handsome in a fraction of a second and used the older man's thigh as a stepping stone to change direction. He briefly caught sight of the older man's wide, surprised eyes, and then he was caught in freefall. He plummeted straight down until his fingers touched the stone wall and he could begin a more controlled descent by pushing just enough chakra into his left hand and foot to allow him to skate down.

Tall, Dark and Handsome started shouting again, but this time they were more controlled bursts. Kakashi had a hard time hearing what he was saying as his ears are still ringing from the last attack, but he could guess; Tall, Dark and Handsome was calling for backup. Just in case the alarm hadn't done the trick.

Kakashi thought rapidly. So long as he was moving away from his opponent, against the current of air, sonic attacks would – _should_ – have a harder time reaching him. Once their descent stopped, though… He had never fought an opponent who used sound before. Even his best guess at what the man could do was still a blind stab in the dark. Quite literally.

He looked up and wasn't surprised to see Tall, Dark and Handsome sliding down the building like he was, using only his feet and one hand. The other hand held a _kunai_ , which Kakashi only managed to dodge by leaping forward and freefalling again. He caught himself after a few stomach lurching seconds. Not much further down to go. Hopefully, Shizune had noticed something was up by now. Hell, she could hardly not have noticed, right? If she was at all sensible, she would be going to get Rin by now. This wasn't exactly according to plan, but Shizune was smart enough to improvise.

Speaking of… Kakashi had hoped to go to the storehouse Shizune had picked as a safe place to face down Jun with Shizune and Rin by his side. She had told him how to get there, but focusing on remembering a route was rather more difficult whilst being chased by a literal screaming maniac. He would have to manage.

He _would_ manage. He wasn't going to fail here. Not when every small success was a step closer towards Kushina. Not to mention what Mikoto-sensei would think of him if he failed because he managed to _get lost_.

Kakashi hit the brakes when the streets were getting too close for comfort and leapt off of the tower towards the nearest rooftop. The landing jarred his body but it didn't matter – he had to keep going. He looked over his shoulder. Tall, Dark and Handsome was only a few seconds behind, and behind him Kakashi could see several other dark shadows. Good, they were following.

He didn't fully realize just how reliant he was on his hearing until instincts made him throw his body to the left and sharp hot pain sparked across his upper arm. Tall, Dark and Handsome's shuriken. He hadn't heard them coming. _Idiot_.        

He crossed his fingers and threw up a quick incorporeal bunshin to draw their fire. They wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the dark, and it would save him some pain. He could have had outrun them, but now that they were aware of him they might as well start their plan early.

The next few minutes were blur of adrenaline as Obito's eye guided him through the darkness with an ease his own eye would never have provided. The ringing in his ears slowly lessened until he could hear his followers shouting behind him again, calling back and forth. He cast his chakra out and caught on to their chakra signatures; most of them distressed and fairly weak, and Tall Dark and Handsome's rolling with anger. Then, another signature flickered into his awareness, more powerful than the others by far, like an open flame next to a matchstick. Jun. excellent.

He drew his chakra back to his body and headed for the edge of town.

* * *

The warehouse looked like it had been in use up until quite recently. It was a huge building, metal beams propping up the roof like a tent, with more beams running horizontal and creating the atmosphere of a modern cathedral, all metal and materialism.

In the middle of the building stood an elevated platform on top of a wall, carrying what looked to be a foreman's office. Kakashi considered it briefly for a hiding spot, then dismissed it. It was the focal point of the room – bad place to hide. Instead, he scaled up one of the metal beams and crouched down on top of a horizontal beam, some thirty feet into the air and covered in shadows.

Metal, concrete, and wood. Perhaps not the perfect surrounding with an opponent who could reportedly melt buildings, but there was no time to find anything else. If nothing else, it was a spacious building. It would be harder for Jun to use it.

"Come on out, kid!" Jun's voice sounded, "this is going to stop being funny very quickly if you don't."

It's not particularly funny right now, Kakashi thought, swallowing against her chakra pressure. She was _definitely_ pissed.

"Let me," Tall, Dark and Handsome growled below, and a moment later a strange, pulsing sensation sent Kakashi's already abused eardrums ringing again. It didn't hurt this time, and it looked different through Obito's eye, which in and of itself was enough to set Kakashi's nerves on end. If it wasn't meant to damage, what was it meant for?

Another pulse went ringing out, and then Tall, Dark and Handsome's sharp gaze cut straight to his hiding position. "Over there," he said, pointing.

Jun turned on a dime and punched the air with a glowing fist. The air before her distorted and shimmered, which was the point where Kakashi and his see-through clone decided that staying put was probably not going to be good for their health. Good thing too, because as he leapt away he could feel the heat of the attack shimmering at his back, burning even from a distance.

He smiled nonetheless. She was _slow_. He wasn't.

He filed that knowledge away for later, and landed on one of the beams overlooking the hangar as he let his clone dissipate into thin air. He straightened up and smiled down at Jun and her gang, shrugging. "Guess you found me," he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Jun grinned. "My lieutenant happens to have excellent ears."

"That's handy. Or, well, _eerie_."

No response.

Kakashi sighed. "No one appreciates my puns."

"How about you give me back my money?" Jun asked, steel backing her voice. With a rippling noise, her fists turned red-hot and white, like living flames. The air around her shimmered like a mirage. "And who the hell are you?"

"I don't know, I quite like the feel of so much money on my back," Kakashi said, scanning her body with his left eye to check out her chakra. It coiled and shifted in an unfamiliar pattern. "Frankly, I was hoping I would have a little bit more time before you guys showed up here. You got here too soon. My hostage hasn't arrived yet."

Jun frowned, and her compatriots looked puzzled. "Hostage? What hostage?" She asked.

Kakashi pulled a face. "My, you're really not very concerned with the fate of your "lieutenants", are you? Take notes, boys." He added, raising a suggestive eyebrow at her lieutenants.

Understanding flashed across her face. "Takeshi."

"Oh, is that his name? We've been calling him Mister Weasel."

Her eye twitched. After a moment, she cracked a smile. "You've got gumption, kid. I'll give you that."

"Thanks. I'd probably be more flattered if you weren't exploiting defenseless civilians."

"And I would probably care more if you hadn't stolen my money," she returned, unfazed. "That's my retirement you're sitting on."

Kakashi let out a low whistle. "I bet you have _lots_ of friends."

One of her lieutenants snickered, and caught himself too late to avoid the elbow flying at his face. He went down, nose gushing with blood. Jun's expression hadn't changed. She hadn't even turned around. Still calm, she reached into her pocket and drew out a piece of cloth to wipe the blood from her elbow. "Lots," she agreed, "so make sure to tell them I said hi when I send you to the underworld, yeah?"

Oh, _good_ line. Kakashi hummed approvingly. He had to remember that one for future reference. He could tell she was starting to lose patience, though, which was problematic. Rin and Shizune hadn't arrived yet, and neither of them were power types who could lug their hostage along without it slowing them down. It would take a few more minutes at the least before they arrived. So… Keep the crooks talking.

"So, your questions. Who am I, and why did I steal your money?" he began, loosening his stance a little and cracking his neck. "Well, it all started in a village far, far away –"

One of the lieutenants threw a knife at him. _Amateur_. Even without Obito's eye, it would have been easy to dodge. He took a step to the right and snapped out his left hand, catching the blade by the handle midflight. He tilted his head and frowned at the man who had thrown it. "Did no one tell you it's rude to interrupt?"

Jun had evidently had enough of playing games, though, sending her men out with a few nods of her head. Two of them went right, another one left, clearly trying to find him, and Tall, Dark, and Handsome came straight at Kakashi. Down below, Jun prepared hand seals. If Kakashi threw himself off the beam he would avoid the flanking lowlifes and Handsome, but he would be a sitting duck for whatever Jun wanted to throw at him. So instead, he rushed at the weak point of the formation: the single attacker to his left, currently running up the wall and leaping towards the beam. Kakashi ducked under his first blow and drove his fist into the larger man's stomach before sweeping his legs out from underneath him. The lieutenant fell from the beam with a startled scream.

Kakashi ran on, scaled the wall, and raced away faster than they could keep up with. Someone cursed loudly and Kakashi had to dodge a few more shuriken, but he had already reached the door to the foreman's office before either of the heavy hitters could act. He slammed it shut behind him and looked around. It was smaller than he had hoped, but there was a ladder going downstairs and another going up. He went up, feeling a strange kind of excitement as he did. If he didn't think for too long it could almost feel like a simple mission, one where he could fight simply to help someone else without it being morally complicated or motivated by the money he would end up earning for the village. This was simple and straightforward, and just challenging enough to be _fun_.

Of course, it would probably stopped being fun soon enough. The woman could melt buildings, for crying out loud. And Rin…

The ladder upstairs led to a larger attic, which probably stretched out across the hangar below. If he ran across it, they would probably hear it below. Not a great option. He returned to the ladder to jump down, but the first of the cronies reached it first and cried out triumphantly when he saw Kakashi. He jumped up through the opening, aiming a kick at Kakashi's face. Kakashi dodged it and returned a few blows, but this new guy was not quite as hopeless as his colleague had been. Crony #2 grinned when one kick landed and made a few seals (fire, Obito said) and, like an idiot, breathed fire across the wooden floor.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Kakashi said, and rushed the guy so fast he didn't even have time to cry out before Kakashi knocked him out. So much for taking it slow, but then these guys were _tremendously_ stupid. The fire caught at the wooden planking, licking and crackling eagerly. Not long before it would block the exit. Kakashi jumped away and down the hatch, feet first into the face of the third and final useless crony.

"Huh," Kakashi said, baffled at the sight of a grown man unconscious at his feet after such a dumb attack. Well. Gift horse, and all that. If Jun elected to recruit idiots, that was her problem and his game.

Something cracked and broke. Parts of the ceiling were coming down as the fire ate away at it. Kakashi went through the second hatchway, the one leading down, and found himself inside a second hangar, this one with several open levels.

He thought quickly. Buildings trapped heat. A larger space was preferable, but fighting her outside would be better still. He just wasn't sure if he had the time…

As if on cue, the windows to the foreman's office shattered, raining glass down on him. No choice, then. He dropped down to the hangar's floor, twisted his body around as he fell and fired off a Phoenix fire jutsu. Six balls of fire streamed towards Jun and her lieutenant, who cursed and dodged.

Lieutenant Handsome opened his mouth and screamed again, making the structure around them shake from the reverberations.

Shit. Kakashi really needed some earplugs. Bringing in the dogs would be impossible too, as their hearing was far too sensitive to be exposed to these kinds of attacks. He cringed just thinking about what that would do.

He peaked from around the beam he had hidden himself behind and saw Jun heading straight for him, her fists glowing. He ducked and watched as the metal beam molded around her fist, turning white-hot with heat. She pulled back but her fist didn't follow. "Fu-"

Kakashi struck with a series of quick jabs to her ribs. The first two landed but on the third, part of her shirt burned away and the skin underneath seared his fist. So it wasn't just limited to her hands, but she had to focus to make it move. His left eye caught movement from the right and he dodged Lieutenant Handsome's fist, ducking underneath it, grabbing him by the wrist and twisting it on to Lieutenant Handsome's back. This forced Handsome to the ground, but there was no keeping him there; Jun had managed to free herself and came flying in with a kick. Kakashi bent over backwards to avoid it, releasing Handsome. He caught himself on his hands and twisted, kicking Handsome in the knee to bring him back down again.

"You little shi-"

Jun moved, but his eye could see what she was about to do a fraction of a second before she did it, like a ghost image overlaying her true self. She would punch him in the stomach, then – rude – knee him in the face, the muscles in her legs already twitching as she prepared to switch stance. His body melted back as she executed it, catching her fist just long enough to jerk her towards him, jump up and knee _her_ in the face. Karma.

He slipped out of her reach and jumped up out of the way of another sonic attack, landing on one of the beams above. All right. He could keep this up for at least a little bit longer.

"Who the hell is this kid?" Lieutenant Handsome hissed, helping Jun to her feet. Her nose was bleeding profusely, but there was plenty of fighting spirit left in those dark eyes."He reads us like a book."

"Shut up, Toshiro," Jun snapped back, not taking her eyes away from Kakashi.

"That freaky eye… There were rumors back home. A Konoha bloodline limit." Lieutenant Handsome gritted his teeth and whispered something Kakashi couldn't quite catch over the ringing in his ears.

'Rumors' only? He probably wasn't from one of the major villages, then. If he was, he would definitely have known the Sharingan. Were there any minor villages that used sound jutsu?

Jun straightened her body, fists curled tightly at her side. Her chakra felt like a burning furnace pressing against his chest. "Did Iwa send you? That pretty eye of yours doesn't look like it belongs there." She tapped her brow with one finger.

Kakashi brought a hand up to his own. He could feel the ridge of the scar where it had left a chip in the bone, but it was harder to tell whether the makeup was still there. Well, it didn't particularly matter. It was better for them to think he had stolen it from an enemy shinobi.

"Oh? Worried Iwa wants to cramp your style?" He replied, rubbing at the star some more.

"They would never send a single agent, they would send a team," Jun said, ignoring him. "So either you're lying, or –"

Rin kicked open the door of the foreman's office, her fists full of Shuriken and Shizune at her back. "Did anyone mention a team?" Rin asked, the corners of her mouth forced up into a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some action! Action scenes are always difficult, so I would love to hear whether you think it works. Next time, Jun starts to show her stuff…


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rin discovers she's not as well matched she had expected, Jun is surprised and surprises in return, and Kakashi has to make the most of a bad situation.  
> Fight scenes continue to be the worst. Also, the best.
> 
> Strap in, folks. Little anthem for this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68mL-gP67WA

Jun looked significantly more intimidating from this close, Rin thought, as her heart hammered in her chest. Jun was at least a head taller than her and big and bulky were Rin was slender. Flames curled up one of her fists, making her skin glow with an otherworldly power. In contrast, water ribbons didn't seem too impressive.

But those fists were turned on innocent people. Those fists burned and hurt and took what wasn't theirs. Stopping them was a worthwhile cause.

She'd fought for less.

Rin jumped down from the foreman's office and landed next to Kakashi, quickly checking him over. It was strange to see him wearing his mask again, but simultaneously comforting. It was a little bit of normalcy in an otherwise foreign country. Even his cropped hair was slowly going silver again as the cheap dye faded.

"Don't suppose you brought earplugs?" Kakashi asked lightly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

Rin blinked at the non sequitur. "... Earplugs?"

"Nevermind. Where did you leave Mister Weasel?"

"There was no time."

"You mean he's still with..?" Kakashi said, looking skeptical.

Rin shrugged. "There is no safer place, right?"

Kakashi paused for a moment as though considering the mental image of _Tsunade of the Sannin_ herself standing over a shivering, terrified Mister Weasel. He hummed approvingly.

When Shizune arrived he continued, darting a quick look over at their opponents. "Listen up. Jun uses heat and fire fists, and don't try punching her because you will burn yourself; Lieutenant Handsome uses sonic attacks."

Rin's thoughts stuttered to a halt. "... _Lieutenant Handsome_?"

"Well, I needed to call him _something_ ," Kakashi said, not sounding particularly remorseful, "they're both pretty dangerous, and I have the feeling they've yet to show everything they can do. Shizune, cover Rin from above. Rin, can you access your water jutsu here?"

Rin looked around. "There are water pipes over there. If we break those, it will be easier."

"Good. Jun uses heat more than fire so your water might not be quite as effective as we had hoped, but you're quick. She's not. Use that."

"And you will go after the sound user yourself?" Shizune asked, joining their little huddle without taking her eyes off of the enemy.

"Yes, I can take him. His technique is interesting, but if I just outrun him I should be fine. You too, stick together. If you don't beat her yourselves I will come and join you the moment I can. And Rin," he turned to meet her with the full force of his mismatched gaze, "call for me if you overdo it."

It wasn't a question. Rin swallowed but nodded.

He returned her nod. "All right. Let's go." And with that, he charged his target.

Shizune pulled a face. "You know, I really should object to being ordered around by a sixteen-year-old boy, but..."

Rin smiled faintly. "We will have our chance. Let's go!"

Fighting together with Kakashi again was like coming home after a long journey. They slotted in together perfectly, darting towards Jun and her Lieutenant like liquid steel. The Lieutenant roared, and shattered the air before him. Rin jumped up and Kakashi disappeared through the concrete floor, tunneling down and then forward before reappearing with a hand around one of Jun and the Lieutenant's ankles each as Rin came at them from above and Shizune showered her senbon from the middle.

The Lieutenant darted left and Jun right, breaking away from Kakashi's hands with a well-placed kick and a glowing ankle, flinching as Shizune's senbon found arms and legs and painful nerves. Kakashi broke out of the ground and went left, after the Lieutenant, whereas Rin and Shizune went right, after Jun.

With their opponent separated, the next move was simple: break the water pipes. As Shizune distracted Jun with a barrage of senbon, Rin rushed over to the wall and watched the pipes, checking their strength. If she focused, she could feel the water still rushing through them as a tremor beneath her hands. She looked up. The pipes were too sturdy for there to be any obvious weak points, and if she blew a hole in the wall with explosives she would just be creating an unwanted exit point. So…

She channeled chakra to her leg, funneling it into the muscle to strengthen and enhance. She found a point in the pipes near the floor, and kicked. The pipe creaked sharply and dented, but didn't quite give. Rin threw a look over her shoulder. In the distance, she could see Kakashi engaged in a flurry of movement with Lieutenant Handsome, flashing the blade she had once given him. Closer by, Shizune darted through the warehouse with Jun at her heels, her senbon melting whenever they so much as approached Jun. The air around Jun shimmered dangerously and blurred her outline. Like a mirage, Rin thought, and knew she didn't have any time to waste.

She kicked again, and again. On the third kick the pipe finally burst, flooding brown tinted water onto the concrete floor. Rin sent a quiet thanks up to whomever had seen fit to keep the water running in the warehouse, before stepping into the steadily growing puddle and shaping her chakra.

_Suiton - Hebitsukai!_

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the puddle seemed to tremble and reshape itself, slowly spiraling upwards in an elegant, translucent twist. It curled around Rin like a snake around its prey, before darting out towards Jun at an immense speed. Jun twisted mid jump to meet it, wide-eyed, and pushed out her hands before her body. The shimmering air around her burst forth like a wall, meeting the water snake halfway. Rin twisted her hands and the snake twisted with it, abruptly changing direction and coming at Jun from the left.

Jun cursed and rolled her body, bringing up one glowing hot arm to defend herself. The snake curled itself around her arm, steam hissing off of it, and hit Jun in the left shoulder, pushing her back several feet. Jun staggered, regained her balance, and _growled_ as the water snake evaporated.

 She punched the air with her glowing fist, forcing hot air towards Rin at a surprising speed. Rin flipped out of the way, her hands already reforming seals for another _hebitsukai._ As it passed, she could feel the searing heat coming off of Jun's attack. If that hit someone, it could boil them from the inside out.

"Bad move, little girl." Jun rushed towards Rin with all the intent of a raging bull, both of her fists glowing. Her eyes glowed like embers. Rin dodged the first fist, gasping as it came flying past her face. She twisted away from the second, but didn't dodge the foot flying at her abdomen. It pushed all the air from her lungs and sent her heaving, leaving Rin only just aware enough to roll away and avoid the fists gunning for the back of her head.

Shizune made the next move: she rolled up her sleeve, revealing an intricate apparatus attached to a bracer around her lower arm, holding a series of vials, each tipped with a sharp needle. She pulled a string and the first few syringes went flying, forcing Jun away from Rin and into the rafters. Shizune followed, and Rin created another _hebitsukai_ and sent it chasing after them both.

Something crashed in the distance, and Lieutenant Handsome sent up another one of his unearthly howls. Rin's stomach clenched. She couldn't see them anymore.

She forced herself away and watched as Jun and Shizune exchanged blows above her, both of them balancing on the rafters with an unearthly grace. Shizune held her right hand flat like a blade, and when the light hit her just right Rin could see the chakra buzzing around it, sharp as a scalpel. A few sharp cuts marked  Jun's arms already. Rin's _hebitsukai_ reached them and spiraled around Shizune before shooting towards Jun. Jun bared her teeth and brought up her arms again. This time, instead of just her forearms, her body lit up from fingertip to shoulder and the _hebitsukai_ evaporated before it could even reach her. The fog briefly blinded Shizune, but not Jun; she burst through the small cloud, ducked underneath Shizune's glowing blue hand, and planted her palm on Shizune's stomach.

Shizune screamed and doubled over, her hands instinctively latching around Jun's forearm. Skin sizzled and burned. Rin could smell burnt meat. _No_! She channeled her chakra into another _hebitsukai,_ this one less snake and more bullet, and watched as it smacked into the side of Jun's head. Jun grunted and lost her balance, falling sideways off of the beam she'd been standing on. She flipped in midair and landed on all fours like a cat. Up above, Shizune curled in on herself, groaning.

Jun planted her hands on the side of the nearest metal beam and began to melt it clean through. Metal bubbled and pinged, turning a violent white. The temperature around them rocketed up, making Rin feel heavy and slow and her lungs dry.

 _We should have picked a stone warehouse after all_ , Rin thought, as she saw the heat steadily pitch the climbing up the supporting beam. It shuddered, then drooped like a candle, pooling at the base. The beam Shizune lay on groaned and dropped about four feet before its other supports halted its descent. Shizune clawed at the steel to stop herself from sliding down and falling, her other hand still pressed against her stomach and glowing green. She managed to get her feet underneath her and clambered to a safer place, just as the beam slid another few feet downwards.

More and more molten steel pooled across the concrete floor. Jun didn't step away, didn't even flinch when it reached her and ate away at her boot. "I did warn you," she said, her voice growing deeper and deeper as the molten steel left her standing barefoot and smoking. The glow from her arms steadily climbed up across her chest, her throat, her face, until her normal skin faded from view entirely. "Try that little water trick of yours again, won't you?"

Rin involuntarily took a step backwards, heart pounding in her chest. Close combat wouldn't work, which made her water mask technique and her taijutsu pointless. The heat was too intense for her _hebitsukai_ to survive it, and fire jutsu would probably only tickle someone like Jun. A shiver ran down Rin's spine and her stomach clenched with fear.

She had another option, of course.

One that she would have to try.

" _Is it that time already_?" A familiar voice whispered, and sent her mind spinning into the darkness.

For a moment, all she heard was the sizzling steam. Then, the water deepened around her feet and the steam was replaced by quiet. She opened her eyes.

Sanbi watched her with uncharacteristic calm, his one eye glowing in the dark. "You come to me with an unusual request," he said, "the first that I think I might actually enjoy."

Rin dropped her gaze. "I need a boost."

If Sanbi could have grinned, he would have done so now. Instead he leaned forward, the claws of his stub-like feet spreading and digging into the earth and sending the water rippling away. He loomed over Rin like a mountain over a city, vast and out of reach. "How wonderful," he said, his voice gaining volume and echoing all around them. "You want _power_."

Rin clenched her teeth. It sounded so ugly, when he said it. "I want to help people," she corrected him.

Sanbi chuckled, the sound rolling through the air like thunder. "No," he said, "you want to feel _useful_. Isn't that how you phrased it? You forget, little girl, that I can see your every action when I so choose. You want to feel _wanted_. Helping people comes second to that."

"That's a lie," Rin snapped, her heart beating furiously in her chest. "That's a lie, that's –"

"it's not, and you know it," Sanbi leered. "How _pleasant_ to have found a chink in your armor."

Rin's eyes and throat burned. He was wrong, he had to be. He – he was a monster, what did he know? He – she just – she wanted to _help_...

Except that he wasn't wrong _._

 _Stop. Just stop, breathe, calm down_ , she told herself. _This is what he thrives on_.

"You have to fight for me – we have a foe to defeat, and a town to save. We have an agreement, don't we?" She forced out. "You keep me alive, no matter what. Even if I fight a losing battle. So, my enemies are yours."

He tilted his head. "Technically, everyone is my enemy."

Rin's throat tightened. "Semantics. _Help me_."

Sanbi snorted and lowered his head to better meet her eyes. "All right. How much help, exactly, do you expect? I take it you do not want me to, ah, take over?"

"You can't," Rin bit out. "I wouldn't let you. The door is shut."

"Hmm. It would be easier if you were a little bit more desperate, but you're not, are you? You trust that your little friend will come and help you even if this doesn't work," Sanbi narrowed his eye. "You have an _awful_ lot of faith in him. He's only a little human, you know."

Rin didn't so much as flinch. "How about we stop talking, and start fighting?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he crooned, and returned Rin to her body.

The first thing she became aware of was a sense of endless energy thrumming underneath her skin, all the way down to her bones, only a little bit less overwhelming than it had felt when she fought Kuriarare.

The second thing she became aware of was that Jun stared at her, wide-eyed and unmoving.

The older woman blinked and seemed to shake herself out of her stupor. "The hell did you just do? Your eyes –"

Instead of answering, Rin cycled through a series of hand seals she'd never used before as easily as if she had known them for years. Power thrummed through her body like the roll of thunder.

From the darkness, Sanbi chuckled. " _Enjoy"_.

The concrete underneath Jun erupted into coral, coral everywhere, spouting up and up through stone and molten steel and knocking Jun clean off her feet. It was gray and ragged, green and sharp, purple and fast and _everywhere_. Rin gasped and brought up her hand in an attempt to focus it, and watched as it wrapped around Jun and grew onto her skin, capturing her and squeezing the air from her lungs. The remnants of the pipe behind her burst entirely, and water came flooding into the room, hissing where it touched the molten steel and filling the room with steam.

 For a moment all was silent, except for Rin's shocked gasps and the hissing steam. Her hand trembled.

"Rin?" Shizune's voice was shaking, too. "Rin? How did you do that?"

"I –" don't know, she wanted to say, but she did know. She knew exactly what this was.

"Rin? Are you okay?" Shizune asked, in that same thin voice.

"I – yes. I'm okay."

Footsteps overhead. Rin turned sluggishly to see Lieutenant Handsome running – no, limping – towards them, clutching at his side from a deep wound. "Jun? Jun, baby, what –" he froze. " _Jun_?"

But where was...?

The coral cracked. Something hissed deep inside, and the coral groaned. A long crack ran down its side. Through it, she could see the glow of Jun's body.

"Rin!" Kakashi appeared just behind Lieutenant Handsome. A trickle of blood ran from his left ear down his neck, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. He stared, wide-eyed, at the display before him. "What the hell did you –"

The coral exploded, sending shrapnel flying. Rin crouched down to avoid it, but there was no need – another wall of coral appeared before her, blocking her off. She could hear the remnants of her first attack pelting against it. When the noise stopped, she raised her hand experimentally and brought it down. The wall followed.

The heat hit her like a blow to the face. Jun stood in the middle of it all, boiling water and molten steel, little more than a shadowed silhouette amongst the light and heat. Her chakra roared with such force that the ground below her feet cracked. The woman was a chakra giant. She growled, a choked, wet sound, and raised her hand to the ceiling.

"Toshiro. _Run._ " She croaked.

The beam right above her melted like butter, falling in thick slabs to the ground. It spread, running down another beam, and another, even spreading up one of the walls. The entire structure shook and groaned. Jun's right arm glowed so brightly it hurts Rin's eyes. The air above her trembled. Something cracked, followed by a sharp metallic shriek, and then the ceiling came crashing down.

Darkness.

Flashes of light. A sharp stinging pain in her head. Someone crying out in pain. More coral, growing around her body. Kakashi's voice, shouting her name. Obito, smiling. Obito, crushed under the rocks. The ceiling crashing down on her, on Shizune, on _Kakashi_.

The arms of the ocean embraced her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suiton - Hebitsukai = Water style - Snake charmer.
> 
> Little note on Rin's abilities: wikia says she had water and fire affinities. I imagine Sanbi hugely amplifies her water affinity (to the point where I think she would discover a few surprises were she to ever go diving) and, drumroll please, gave her the ability to use coral. I wasn't going to give it to her at first because it made no sense (as coral is a living organism, not an element) but ??? She's a magical ninja with a turtle demon in her belly. At some point, you have to abandon logic.
> 
> I really hope you liked it, please do let me know. Fight scenes are a bitch, but simultaneously really fun. I'm hoping it was at least a little bit epic. We will wrap up the fight next chapter, and then there are a few discussions to be had...


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanbi plays. Rin raises the stakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW. Burns and eventual ninja-typical murder. There's a type of self harm in this chapter, but it's not fueled by any psychological issues.

Dust clogged in Kakashi's throat and lungs even through the mask. Below, the heat of molten steel licked angrily at his heels. His nails caught on the concrete as he scrabbled at the rock, until he flattened his palm and channeled his chakra into the slab. It cracked and crumbled, falling away underneath the onslaught of his earth nature.

Finally, his hand touched nothing but air. Bone deep relief coursed through his mind that he wouldn't have to die like this, not yet, not now. With another few pushes, he got his head and shoulders out from the rubble and started coughing out ash and dust. He pulled his mask away from his face long enough to get some of the worst of it out, but it was still scratchy and chalky when it settled back. His eyes stung with it.

Now that he could see again, he realized he was covered in a layer of dust from head to toe, painting his clothes and hair a familiar chalky white.

A few feet away, Shizune  surfaced with a wet gasp. Kakashi clambered across broken slabs and exposed wiring to help. Her hand was pale and slick with blood in his own.

"You're okay," Kakashi said, awkwardly patting her shoulder. Blood trickled from her forehead down the side of her face.

"I think I might have a concussion," she said faintly, hunching forward.

"Sit down," he said, and helped her over to the nearby remnants of what used to be a wall, propping her up against it. It looked steady enough. "You should be all right over here. Keep an eye out for the exposed wiring."

His ears were still ringing. He snapped his fingers before his left ear. All he heard was the faint shift of skin over skin. He touched his earlobe and his fingers came away bloody. Lieutenant Handsome had only landed one attack, but it had hurt like hell. A ruptured eardrum, perhaps? Shit.

He stood up carefully, and looked around. One half of the warehouse was still standing, but the other half was a mass of flames and steel and broken concrete. He saw a figure in the distance, searching frantically through the rubble. Too tall to be Rin. His heart constrained in his chest. If he lost her here, like this, crushed underneath the weight of stone as Obito had, he –

He didn't know what he would do. Unleash his mutated eye, perhaps. Vanquish the people who had _dared_ to –

He took a deep breath, pushing down the anxiety curdling in his stomach. Rin was strong and, after all, not without allies. So long as Sanbi was there, she wouldn't go down easy. The beast had some benefits.

 In the meantime, what could _he_ do? He focused on the figure he had seen earlier and saw Jun's chakra dancing around it, much weaker than before. Looking for her boyfriend, perhaps. Kakashi stretched his fingers experimentally. He would probably still be able to pull off _chidori..._ All it would take was one strike.

Then again, Jun might be of more use in Konoha's T&I department.

Some fifty feet away, the rubble shifted and exploded outwards, raining debris down. A slender hand broke free and clawed at the rock, followed by another arm, a dust covered head, a pair of shoulders, and then Rin emerged completely, her hair and clothes whipping around her. A line ran across the left half her face like a crack through stone. The same unearthly coral from inside the warehouse crawled up the side of her neck, just touching her jaw, and turning his blood to ice in his veins. A cloak of vicious, discolored chakra surrounded her body, billowing into two tails behind her.

And her eyes – warm brown was replaced by burning magenta, the sclera an angry black. They weren't Rin's eyes. They weren't even human. His stomach flipped. He saw those eyes his nightmares sometimes, Rin's sweet voice asking him to kill her.

Perhaps that was the deal, then. Rin stayed alive, but at a price.

There was only one thing he could do about it that was acceptable to him. A deep shiver ran along his spine. If he could choose to never have to feel this horrible, oppressive chakra again, he would – but with his social circle, that was rather unlikely.

Even from this distance he could see her press her lips tightly together, before opening them in a guttural growl. "You shouldn't have done that."

It was Rin's voice, but somehow, irrevocably, _not her_. It rasped uncomfortably in the back of her throat and warbled the consonants as they left her lips, as though she had not spoken for a very long time and had forgotten how it worked.

Only a short distance away, Jun took a step backwards. "What the fuck are you?" She growled, wild eyed and ready to snap. The air around her no longer simmered and where there had been a white-hot glow there were now ugly, purple bruises, curling up her arms. Dust and blood and sweat had smeared out her makeup into a grimacing mask.

Rin – no, _Sanbi_ , stepped in her direction, their gait a little wobbly. "Oh, me? I'm the bogeyman," Sanbi slurred, curling Rin's voice into something vicious and dark. He bared her lips in a grin.

Jun staggered backwards. "Stay the fuck away from me –"

Sanbi closed the distance in a blink. One moment he stood there in the rubble, the next he was right above Jun, claws outstretched. Jun rolled out of the way too late, screaming when the claw raked across her back and opened her to the bone.

Sanbi chuckled as she scrambled to get away from him, moving on all fours before she found her feet again and half-ran, half limped towards what remained of the warehouse. Steam rolled off her shoulders as her  jutsu reactivated. Sanbi let her, taking his time to stretch Rin's body and look around. His eyes fell on Kakashi, and he smiled slyly. He shifted on his feet and for a moment Kakashi thought he would change direction, towards him and Shizune.

Instead, Sanbi brought Rin's index finger to her lips and winked. He turned and walked after Jun at a leisurely pace, small patches of coral sprouting up around his feet with every step.

Kakashi stood frozen to the ground until a hand reached out and tugged at his pant leg.

"Kakashi? What is happening to her? Is that – is she?" Shizune asked, white as milk.

"Yeah," he said grimly. "She is."

The containment seal. He needed it, _now_. He patted down his pockets before remembering he kept it in his pouch and pulled it out. Sanbi was only just in view, but his presence burned like a poker. The problem would be to get it on Rin without getting ripped to shreds.

Kakashi had to try, even if every instinct in his body screamed at him to stay the hell away. Rin relied on him. The nearby town relied on him. He had accepted the risks just as Rin had. And – well.

He loved her, didn't he?

He swallowed and looked back at Shizune. "I have to try and stop her," he said. "If I don't make it, get Tsunade. Don't let Rin destroy this town. It would ruin her."

He turned and set off after Sanbi, ignoring Shizune's cry of protest.

His heart pounded in his chest like a drumbeat, fast and painful. He ached all over. Sanbi would kill him, he absolutely would. So, why hadn't he? Why had he focused on Jun instead, when he so clearly knew she wasn't his only potential prey?

He'd made human gestures. He had talked. He could make choices. Sanbi was sentient.

What did that mean for Rin? Or for Jun?

Up ahead, Sanbi disappeared into the building. Jun screamed. Something crashed.

Kakashi sped up.

* * *

Rin felt cold. She breathed in thick, cloying water that sat like glue in her lungs. Pressure bore down on her body from all directions, crushing all thought and reason.

All she knew was anger, an anger so vast and old that it could not be her own.

On some level she was aware she was not underwater, but in a warehouse, strolling across concrete as Jun burned through another jutsu to try and ward her claws off.

On some level.

Truthfully, the water felt more real. Safer. More _her_.

Brief amusement flashed through the cold, a welcome break from the anger. Sanbi was pleased about something. Rin latched onto it and saw, for a moment, her hands cloaked in foreign chakra, forming foreign seals – but the vision was as fleeting as a summer breeze.

Summer… Oh, to be home again, and sink into the river flowing through Konoha and forget everything.

A gut wrenching scream cut through the darkness. Jun. Rin could see herself moving from a great distance, as though it wasn't her but someone else swinging her limbs and letting coral climb up the walls and floors, slowly but surely taking up all the oxygen in the room. As though it wasn't her body moving at unnatural speed to avoid Jun's counterattack, flickering in the air before reappearing elsewhere.

Unbidden, her mind went to Kushina, small and frail in her hospital bed. Had it been like this for her? Had she felt so… Cold?

Jun spun on her feet, fueled by some desperate instinct, and managed to nail Rin in the shoulder with a kunai.

The pain was brief and sharp, blossoming across her front and shattering Rin's apathy. With it came the knowledge that she was not herself, at all – that her body was a mere puppet used to destroy, destroy, destroy –

Sanbi grunted and pulled the knife out.

(Rin was a puppet used as bait the day Obito died.)

Sanbi pressed a hand to the wound and slowly, laboriously, knitted it back together.

(Rin was a puppet when Kiri took her and turned her into a time bomb.)

Sanbi knocked Jun back down with a shockwave of pure energy. Rin's shoulder pulsed angrily.

(Rin was a puppet when Sanbi flayed Kuriarare. Rin was a puppet rendered useless the day Minato died.)

Skin twisted and drew back together, finally whole again.

(Sanbi's brief distraction was –)

(– An opportunity –)

Rin did not want to be a puppet ever again.

She had _promised_ herself.

Rin flexed her fingers, wrinkly and rough from being underwater, and forced her hands together. She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of her heartbeat, reverberating through her chest. She focused on her chakra, so different from Sanbi's. In her mind's eye, it glowed green and smooth like her healing jutsu once had. Just as Kushina had taught her.

She waited.

Somewhere on the very edge of her awareness, Sanbi laughed and taunted with her voice, tore and clawed with her hands. Bled with her blood when Jun conjured up a sphere of heat and made it burst outward, blindingly hot and searing and catching Rin's body in the blast.

But the anger was his own, not hers. She could feel it now, separate from her own brand of fury. Could separate him, from her.

Rin focused her chakra and tried to picture a scalpel, like the one Shizune had made, and waited. There were brief moments where she could feel her own body, blood and sinew, as Sanbi sent it after Jun. Moments where she felt pain, either because her opponent landed a hit or because Sanbi did not respect the boundaries of her aching muscles.

It was in one of those moments of clarity that Rin focused and, her chest burning with determination, cut her right Achilles' tendon in half.

* * *

Kakashi's back hit the nearby concrete wall with a thud, eyes burning as the heat of Jun's chakra evaporated all the moisture in the air. The skin of his left forearm, already ruined by Kuriarare, bubbled horribly for a moment as the burn wound set in. His breath hissed out from between his teeth as pain lanced through the entire limb, white-hot and irreversible.

Somewhere behind the wall he had picked as cover, the battle continued without him. Shit, but they were chakra _behemoths_ compared to him. Jun's last attack would have ended him, if he had responded any slower.

It wasn't very often that he was so painfully aware that, for all his talent, there was a level of innate ability his body could never hope to match. A level of ability Minato had had, Sakumo had had, Tsunade had. An unbreakable ceiling.

He bit his lip hard enough to break the skin. Thought of the diamond on Tsunade's forehead, and thought, _someday_.

Today he would have to make do with smarts and speed, as he always had, and trust in Rin's willpower.

So long as Sanbi focused on Jun, he had time. He stuck his head around the corner long enough to see Rin hunched over, her hands on her chest and her face as Sanbi healed her injuries. Rin's head lifted after a moment and the muscles in her legs tensed, preparing to jump. At that moment, her body convulsed sharply as his Sharingan showed a bright pulse of chakra in the midst of Sanbi's demonic aura. Instead of jumping, her right leg gave out underneath her instead of bearing her weight and she tumbled to the ground, clutching at her heel.

"Why would you do that, you little –"Sanbi screeched, wide-eyed.

Kakashi grinned.

Rin was still in there. She was still fighting.

All he needed to do was figure out how to help.

On the other side of the room, Jun swayed like a drunken boxer. Blood pooled on the floor beneath her, enough of it that Kakashi knew she would be done for in a matter of minutes. Cornered animals, though…

Thinking quickly, he brought his hands together and created a shadow clone. An expensive trick, perhaps, but he would rather the clone get torn to shreds for the sake of an experiment than his own body.

The clone looked at him once. "Really?" It muttered, incredulously. Then it shrugged, and leapt out of hiding as quickly and quietly as it could.

In the room before him, Sanbi struggled back to his feet, grunting as the flow of chakra around his heel briefly flared in order to heal it. He passed a glance at the clone before returning his gaze to Jun with a hungry snarl.

Kakashi watched the clone go, quietly taking note of the efficiency of its movement to check for room for improvement. He watched as it ducked behind another half wall before reaching out and throwing a kunai at Rin's back.

Kakashi's heart leapt in his throat during the few microseconds it took for the knife to reach its target, and didn't breathe properly until the coral on Rin's neck jumped out and caught it before it could bury itself between her ribs. Sanbi didn't even bother to turn around, to focus on his prey. Theory confirmed.

The clone took another kunai and wrapped an exploding tag around it with practiced hands. It moved away from his hiding spot to find another, from where it threw the blade at a point between the two women. Both Rin and Jun instinctually leapt back, but they were still close enough –

The explosion rattled Kakashi's skull even with his busted ear, the shockwave of it passing through his chest and rattling the door behind him. It tossed Rin and Jun to the ground like a rag dolls. The clone burst out of his hiding spot immediately, moving towards Rin so quickly even Kakashi barely saw him move, hand outstretched with a fake copy of the repressing seal held firmly within it.

Kakashi moved with it, the room a blur around him as he headed for Rin's back, the real seal clutched in his fingers. Rin's head turned, one magenta eye just catching sight of him and widening. Coral came darting out towards him, sharp and lethal, identifying him as the real danger. They were fast, so fast, and he wouldn't be able to dodge –

Kakashi shaped the seals for _kawarimi,_ and neatly switched places with his neglected clone, mid-air and mere inches away from Rin. Arm outstretched, he pressed the seal to Rin's forehead.

 The clone died in a burst of agony where he had been a mere moment ago.

Sanbi staggered. His chakra blurred.

Somewhere behind them, Jun snarled and cursed at threw another of her heat bombs into the room. It radiated outwards like a balloon, with her at the center, and Kakashi only just had enough time to throw himself out of the way and watch, desperate, as the searing hot air tore away at Rin's skin.

Jun panted and snarled like a feral dog, so eager to defend herself that she had bitten the wrong one. Because as Kakashi watched, Sanbi reached up towards his forehead and, with a faintly curious expression, started to peel off the remains of the half-burnt seal.

* * *

The light burned Rin's eyes, seared her skin, took away her ability to think, but for just a moment she could feel her own body and breathe in air. For one beautiful moment she could sense only her own chakra, untainted.

The cloying darkness snapped back in place almost as quickly, snatching away her breath.

This time, though, Rin wasn't afraid.

Rin was _angry_.

Sanbi's anger pounded like a heartbeat around her, but there was something frantic about it. Something scared.

Because if something had managed to snuff his chakra out in the blink of an eye, it could do so again.

Rin clasped her hands together once more, and pushed her chakra out. Pushed her awareness out, back into her body, just enough that she could freeze the hand going for her forehead and pull at the tendons.

And it hurt, oh yes – her entire body trembled with the effort it took to hurt herself. Her body burned, solely for the symbolic act of _not letting Sanbi win_.

The repression seal was already broken. It didn't really matter anymore. No, this? This was a battle of wills.

"Girl," Sanbi's voice echoed around her, "what are you doing?"

The next second, Rin found herself before his cage, watching his struggling, chained form.

"This is my body," Rin mouthed, and although her voice was barely audible she knew Sanbi could hear her. Another pulse of her chakra, and the tendon running towards her index finger snapped.

More anger rushed around her, and for a moment it threatened to choke her.

 _The only reason he's angry is because he feels_ _threatened_ , a voice in the back of her mind said, sounded suspiciously like Kushina. _Because he knows you're right_.

"You're a parasite," Rin said, "so angry that you have forgotten the things that really matter."

The water started to bubble and turn, whirling around her faster and faster, but she wasn't scared.

"My anger, my fear, enables you," Rin said, and thought of the blinding fear she had felt, only for a moment, that Kakashi was out there, buried in the rubble. That he was dead.

He wasn't dead, though. He was fine, because he was Kakashi, and he always found a way out. The only way he could ever die was saving someone else.

Like Obito had.

Rin wasn't scared anymore.

"My body allows you to move," she said, and this time her voice sounded stronger. She snapped another tendon, and another. Her hand _burned_.

Sanbi screamed with her voice, blasting Jun through a wall with his right hand even as the left remained, trembling before Rin's forehead.

"So without it, without me, you cannot fight. And I don't want to fight out of anger, or fear –"

Rin frowned.

"That's not who I am," she continued. "And so long as you're with me, I'd rather it's not who you are, either."

Sanbi seemed, somehow, smaller than before.

"I know it's a fool's hope to think I can change your mind with a few well-chosen words, but so long as you won't listen I will continue to remind you, that for all your power," Rin stepped forward, balled her fists at her side and let her chakra _burn_ , "you exist within my being. And without me, you cannot exist on this plane. Not right away, anyhow."

Still, Sanbi said nothing, only jerked against the chains. His jaw was clenched tightly shut and he never once looked away from Rin.

"So as long as you keep being a fool, I will keep snapping tendons. Did you know medical ninjutsu can be used to harm instead of heal? That it can cut blood vessels or corrupt organs? You took my ability to heal from me, but I still have this. And I will not hesitate to use it," Rin said, not breaking eye contact. "I'm sure you remember what happened after we first got stuck together."

"You would have killed yourself," Sanbi said, a strange tremor running through his voice. "You would have killed yourself just to stop me."

Rin's lip trembled. "I don't want to die. That said, I can't imagine any fate worse than having someone else use me to murder innocents. So I have a deal for you. Will you listen?"

A shudder ran through Sanbi's body. Rin waited.

"I will listen," said Sanbi.

* * *

When she returned to the world it was with the peculiar sensation of a second mind pressing up against her own, sharing her body in a way it hadn't before. For once, Sanbi didn't overrule her or press her to the background of his mind. She could breathe with her own two lungs and feel the air on her skin. The world seemed sharper somehow, the colors more vibrant, with Sanbi's chakra fueling her body. Her injured hand began to tingle and as she raised it to look at she felt Sanbi knit the tendons back together.

"Don't go tearing them again," her voice rasped, and oh – that felt really weird.

"And don't complain when it was your idea," her mouth said, and this time she recognized Sanbi's distinctive cadence.

"I'm not complaining," she said. "This is much better."

Sanbi snorted. "Agree to disagree. Now, where did that hag go?"

Rin turned her head to look. Jun was moving away from them, dragging her bleeding leg behind her. Blood streamed down her torn back and dyed her clothing a deep burgundy. She looked like a breeze would be enough to knock her over.

"All right," Rin said, and stepped forward. Her body felt strangely cumbersome, as if she hadn't used it in a long time. She wondered if that was Sanbi's experience somehow reflecting back to her, just as she could feel his chakra curling around and strengthening her muscles.

She didn't bother to hide the sound of her steps. There was no point. She had already won. Jun knew it, too. Rin could see it in her terrified eyes. Well, there was no real need to kill her. They could just capture her, and hand her over to a Wind Country outpost. They would know what to do with one of their own runaways.

"Boring," Sanbi grumbled. Ahead of them, Jun groaned. "See? She agrees," Sanbi said.

"I think it's more likely she's wondering why I'm talking to myself," Rin muttered, but she didn't feel particularly self-conscious since it came with the power of a bijuu at her back. If people were going to be scared of her, it might as well be because she spoke to herself in strange voices during battle.

Jun groaned again as she forced her body to move faster, but in her attempt she slipped on the blood coating her boot and smashed into the ground, just barely catching herself on her hands. She moaned and rolled onto her back, her dark eyes glaring. In the same movement, she whipped out a kunai and tossed it at Rin's face.

Rin caught it inches before her face, her hand so quick she barely saw it move. She knew she had initiated the catch, but her arm had responded so much faster than usual it might as well been someone else's. Coral popped out the skin on the back of her hand and gently curved around her wrist. When she looked at it more closely, the coral looked almost like flowers.

Jun scooted further backwards, heels scrabbling for purchase.

She let Sanbi raise her hand and send his coral racing towards Jun, creeping up her legs and her upper body until she could no longer move.

"Does choking her count as killing her?" Sanbi asked, petulant.

"You know the answer to that. This is all we need to do."

"Dreadful."

Rin ignored him and instead met Jun's angry eyes. "Don't worry. I won't kill you. I'm going to take you home."

Jun hissed and wriggled against her bonds. "How is that different? You might as well _kill me yourself_."

Rin winced. Jun probably wasn't wrong. "I'm sorry, but you brought this on yourself."

"You're bounty hunters, aren't you? The villagers hired you?"

Rin blinked. "Sure," she said. It was as good an explanation as any. Certainly it would make more sense to Jun than telling her the truth.

"You can't take me back. You can't. I'd rather die." Jun turned her head and spat on the ground. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. "I'd rather – shit, _Toshiro._ Toshiro is dead." Her voice cracked on his name.

Rin's sense of victory faded a little, but she felt no guilt. "That was you as well," she said, her voice dispassionate. "You collapsed a roof on him in your eagerness to get your money back."

A wail rose up from between Jun's gritted teeth. Her body rocked against the floor, her head bouncing off of the concrete in a gesture of complete, frustrated futility. "I won't go back," she breathed. "I won't do it."

"You don't have a choice," Rin said. The coral would hold, and after everything she had thrown at Rin, Jun was exhausted.

Jun knew it too. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, forcing a few tears out. "Toshiro..." She groaned. "I'm so sorry."

"Where was he from?" Rin asked. "I've never seen attacks like that."

"What do you care?" Jun snapped. "There's no price on his head for you to claim. His hometown has barely even formed."

She broke off and began to cough.

"Can you stop her bleeding?" Rin asked Sanbi.

"If I must," he grunted, and with a twist of their hand the coral around Jun's body twisted and tightened, flattening across her wounds. Jun screamed, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted.

"She'll hold," Sanbi said. "Speaking off, are we going to do anything about that fire? Thought you didn't want to draw attention."

As he spoke Rin turned and left the remains of the warehouse, stepping effortlessly through the debris.

Kakashi fell in beside her, eyeing her warily. "That you, Rin?" He asked, his injured arm held close to his body (the left one again, dammit).

" It's me," Rin said.

"You still look… Slightly demonic," he remarked dryly.

"Oh. I suppose I do." Rin blinked. "Is it the eyes?"

"Yeah. Sort of pink and murderous," he said. His voice sounded strained.

Like Sanbi's eye. Interesting. "And the coral on my skin," Rin said.

"Yeah, let's – let's not forget about the coral."

"Or the, ah, second voice speaking with my mouth."

Kakashi stopped walking, forcing her to stop as well. His eyes looked more uncertain than she had seen them in ages.

"Is that him, then?" He asked.

Rin forced a smile and nodded. "We've come to an agreement."

_You get to fight, but I get to watch and make decisions. If not, I will stop my own heart._

"You're a tough negotiator, kid," Sanbi said. He sounded strangely demure, in her voice.

Kakashi huffed out a disbelieving laugh. "Right. You wrangle demons into doing your bidding now."

Rin's smile turned more genuine as a fierce pride spread through her chest. A puppet no longer. "I suppose I do. I'm sure he will find ways to rebel, though."

"Count on it," Sanbi rumbled back.

Rin smiled wider, and stepped out of the warehouse. The sky was starting to lighten on the horizon. She saw Shizune stand up slowly, supporting herself on a nearby wall as she watched Rin and Kakashi.

"I sent a clone for Tsunade," she said slowly, wide-eyed. "But the fire is still going..."

"Don't worry," Rin said. "I have a plan for that."

She jumped up on the remains of a supporting beam and saw the flames the flickering below, heat rising from the melting steel.

"Well, Sanbi?"

A pause. " _Isobu_. Call me Isobu."

And with that, Isobu's chakra roared to life as he channeled waves upon waves of water out of the ground, finally dousing Jun's flames.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you her being a medic would come back.
> 
> In between Uni work and my brand-new love for a hobo wizard and his goblin mom (didn't think I'd be into it, but Critical Role is just *chef's kiss* delightful) I haven't had a lot of writing energy lately. Maybe cheer me on a little?
> 
> Trivia:
> 
> \- The seal Madara placed on Rin that stopped her from hurting herself was detected and removed by Minato. I accidentally retconned its existence in Regeneration so I can't have it existing now, either.
> 
> \- In case you didn't guess, Lieutenant Handsome/Toshiro was from the village that would eventually become Otogakure.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hitting the right tone for this chapter was really, really hard. I don’t know if I quite managed. You’ll have to decide.

 

 

 

Steam rose gently from the husk of the warehouse. Rin watched it curl up into the sky from where she sat, blinking slowly when it vanished. Her body ached with exhaustion.

Had it been worth it? Risking so much for a town of strangers?

She smiled. She wasn't sure whether she could take credit for her success or whether she had just been very, very lucky, but… Well.

She had taken a risk, and in return made the bargain of a lifetime.

If nothing else, Kushina would have been proud.

Kakashi cleared his throat and gestured at the ruins with a nod. "Company," he said.

Senju Tsunade sighed as she stepped across broken concrete, her movements slow but determined. A saké flask dangled loosely from her fingers.

Shizune followed closely behind, her eyes flicking between her teacher and the flask. Her head wound had been tightly packed and bandaged and she moved with a surety of foot that suggested the wound no longer hindered her. When she saw them, she rushed past her master and ran towards them, black hair flying.

"Rin!" She called out, waving.

She didn't look afraid, or hateful. Rin risked a smile. Shizune returned it, although the skin around her eyes remained tight. "Are you two alright?" She asked, slowing down.

Rin glanced over at Kakashi. His arm looked terrible. They would have to clean it and wrap it up, prevent infection. She was worried about his ear, too. Perhaps Shizune would have painkillers to spare. "Kakashi?" She asked him, but his answer would have to wait; Tsunade had reached them.

"I'd be a liar if I said I expected this," Tsunade said, her amber eyes trained on the gently steaming hunks of metal strewn across the field. "A jinchuuriki and White Fang's kid traveling hundreds of miles to, what? Destroy a gang?" She snorted and took a swig from her flask. She seemed more clearheaded than the first time they had met her, but… Rin frowned. Not entirely sober, either.

"Shizune warned me you two were up to something stupid, but I could've felt that chakra signature of yours from miles away. So could anyone else with half a brain, for that matter," Tsunade continued. "Explains why you two needed a repression seal that powerful. I'm surprised Sarutobi let you go." She tilted her head, giving Rin a critical once over.

Kakashi struggled to his feet, tension lining his shoulders. He glanced at Rin, for once struck silent. Rin tried to push herself up. Jinchuuriki. Tsunade knew, then. Perhaps it had been inevitable from the moment they met her.

"He didn't let us go," Rin croaked. Gravity itself seemed to be pushing down on her under Tsunade's critical eye, and she couldn't find her feet no matter how much she wanted to. "We came to find you. And we found a town in need of help. So we helped."

“You just left?” Tsunade paused. "I used to know people who would've loved these kinds of shenanigans. Probably… Probably would have done the same thing."

"They sound nice," Kakashi said.

"They were idiots," Tsunade said. "Risking life and limb for a bunch of strangers is the stupidest thing any shinobi could do."

She didn't sound like she thought they were idiots. She sounded like she loved them.

"It was the kind thing to do," Kakashi said, meeting Rin's eyes. "Right?"

Warmth filled Rin's chest and she mustered a smile. "Yes, it was."

"The kind thing to do," Tsunade echoed. "The kind thing – really? Are we living in the same world?"

"Shishou," Shizune tried to interject, but Tsunade cut her off with a look.

"Do you disagree?" Kakashi asked, going for petulant but ending up with pained. The knuckles clenched around his injured arm were white with strain.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed before scanning over him and landing on his bad arm. She clenched her jaw, then abruptly lifted her chin as if to steel herself. She reached his side in two sure steps and took his injured hand, drawing it towards her. Her hand hovered an inch or so over his ruined skin. Green chakra sparked up around her fingers, comforting in its familiarity, and the angry blisters melted away like snow. Angry red turned pale and whole, until only the old scars from Kuriarare's torture remained. Tsunade frowned and pulled at the twisted skin, manipulating it this way and that until she was satisfied.

Rin remembered to close her mouth, lest she end up gaping like a fish at the best healer in the world. Oh, to be able to see what Tsunade had just done at a molecular level, or even just sense the way her chakra worked… She felt strangely envious of Kakashi for being the recipient of such advanced medical jutsu. Her own body, stiff and heavy as it felt, was unmarked.

"There, now it's functional again," Tsunade said gruffly and dropped Kakashi's hand. Her eyes cut over to Rin. "I'm guessing you're fine."

Rin blinked. "Yes. Just… Exhausted. I've never done that before."

"You put out the fire. Good thing too, or half the city would have come to watch within the hour," Tsunade said. Her expression was hard to read, but it reminded Rin of Kakashi when he very much wanted to say something but wasn't sure how. "You know how dangerous using its powers is?"

Rin nodded demurely.

"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked, digging a little deeper.

"I understand," Rin said. "Better than most."

Tsunade's brown eyes held her own for a little bit longer before she nodded.

“It’s all right with you, then?” Rin asked, surprising even herself. “That I’m –“

“Oh, please. You’re a little girl with a hero complex. I’ve seen much worse,” Tsunade scoffed.

“But I’m a –“

“So was my grandmother. You think I would be prejudiced, of all people?”

Rin clenched her jaw. “It’s rarely the people you’d expect,” she said.

“Just don’t get anyone killed and I don’t see why I should object,” Tsunade shrugged, and turned to appraise the damage around her. She gave a low whistle.

Kakashi shifted. He pulled his headband back down over his left eye, obscuring his expression to anyone not deeply familiar with him. "So… You can still heal," he said, more statement than question.

"Of course I can," Tsunade said shortly. "It's not a skill one just loses."

"Then why –" Kakashi cut himself off. He frowned, looked down at his clenched fists. "If you could still heal people, why did you leave?"

Her eyes cut into his like steel. Her chakra buzzed under her skin like a swarm of bees, and for a moment Rin feared she would do something dangerous. Then Tsunade cleared her throat again and looked away, out across the ruins. "I thought it would get better if I could keep away from it," she said gruffly. "If I could just distract myself… But it doesn't work. Not really. The dead are still dead. You talk about kindness like it's something that exists in this world."

"What would get better?" He asked, relentlessly. "Get away from what?"

"Damn it, kid," Tsunade snapped. "You've lost people. You've both seen some shit. You know what I'm talking about." She brought her flask to her lips and took a deep, long draught. "You can't tell me there isn't something in your life that you can't stand to think about."

Rin forced herself up into a seat, her mind whirling. Kakashi had seen something, or understood something, that her own mind was still struggling to grasp. Tsunade had lost people, got scared at the sight of blood or injuries, and wanted to... Get away. Get away from what?

Rin would give an awful lot to never see a ceiling crash down on top of her or a man impaled through the stomach again and the fewer seals placed on her skin the better.,

New understanding blossomed in her mind. "You… Were scared," she said, awed.

Tsunade took another swig. "I lost too much. I couldn't unsee it."

"You lost people."

"Yes."

"You couldn't forget what happened to them."

" _Yes_. When I see blood, I – it takes me back," Tsunade stopped talking, shaking her head at the futility.

Briefly, silence reigned.

"I've read about ailments like these," Rin said, feeling like she was treading on thin ice. "It's a fairly new branch of research, but…"

She startled when the full force of Tsunade's gaze fell on her. "But what?"

Rin swallowed around the lump in her throat. "After the war, there were a lot of people with, uhm, psychological ailments. Minato-sensei set up a team to research them further. I haven't been in the hospital for some time, but I believe the team is still there. Sandaime didn't stop them, although their funding is limited."

"Psychological ailments," Tsunade echoed. In the morning light, her eyes seemed to glow golden. "People called it cowardice, in my day."

"It's not cowardice," Rin said, painfully aware of Kakashi's eyes on her.

Tsunade watched her a little bit longer. "But in a world like this, isn't fear a more fitting response than kindness?"

Rin faltered. "I don't –"

"if they treat my, ha, psychological ailment, no matter how good a job they do, it won't make the world any less shit," Tsunade said.

Oh. Rin's eyes stung. "Perhaps not," she admitted.

Kakashi looked between them. He frowned, then, before shaking his head. "Won't get any better, either, if everyone just lets it be," he muttered.

Tsunade sighed. "Look, kid, I get it – you're a tough cookie, and life hasn't quite beaten the joy out of you yet, but trust me – fixing little problems like this one?" She gestured around. "Won't change a damn thing, down the line."

"That's not true," Rin found herself saying. "People in that city can sleep easier, now. They can focus on living their lives without constant threat. So, it did change something."

"That's disgustingly idealistic," Tsunade said, and took another swig. Just beside her, Shizune reached out a hand as if she wanted to intercept the flask – but then she dropped her hand, face falling.

"We want you to help Kushina," Kakashi said. "The world isn't kind. Some people are, though. She's one of them. She deserves better."

Gratitude seeped through Rin, curling the corners of her mouth into a smile. He didn't always know what to say, but when he did, he did it right. "She's one of the best people I know," she added. "And her son deserves a mother. If not for her, then… Maybe do it for him."

Tsunade rubbed her hands over her face. As the sun rose on the horizon, it colored her hair a fiery red. "I know Kushina. I understand why you're fighting for her."

"Then –"

"I haven't been to Konoha for years. Do you understand what that means?"

"You're the Hokage's student. They will go easy on you," Kakashi said, sounding certain.

Tsunade gave him a wry grin. "So was Orochimaru."

"But you still have the Hokage's favor. You're not a psychopath," he retorted.

Tsunade winced. "You don't pull any punches, do you kid?" Her gaze dropped to the floor, bangs obscuring her face for a moment. "They'll let me in, yes. And then they will never let me go."

Rin's smile faded. "This is the first time in two years that I've been outside the village. And only because I snuck out. I'm sure they won't be happy, when we return. But you," she smiled. "Would they really be able to stop you, if you wanted to leave?"

"No. The problem is I might not want to leave, once I'm back," Tsunade said. "You left to come and find me because there are good people at home, and because part of you believes in Konoha. Really, truly believes in it, despite everything you've seen and lived through. You would die for the village, even though you're just a kid. You don't see why that's wrong. The worst part is, I would die for that village too."

They fell silent. Rin could hear Kakashi's labored breathing. Rin looked down at her hands, seeing the dozens of thin white scars running across her knuckles and fingers. Her father had used to rub her hands with ointment every evening to soften them. He'd always fussed. Further down, the fabric of her leggings was torn, revealing her bare leg. An injury like that might have cost her her life, without Isobu. If she were to lift her shirt, she would see his seal, burned into her at thirteen. Worse still were Obito's dog tags around her neck.

She was fifteen years old, almost sixteen, and she knew down to her bones sixteen-year-olds – hell, humans – weren't supposed to have to withstand so much.

She knew perfectly well something wasn't right with Konoha, with the world. She knew better than most.

"Screw that," Kakashi said, quiet but fierce. His good eye burned with anger. "And screw you for thinking that we're so naïve. This isn't about the village. It's about Kushina."

Tsunade briefly closed her eyes and a careful blankness fell across her face. "You can come back to my place for a rest and a shower. After that, you can go home."

She spared them one last look before turning and walking away, the line of her shoulders sagging.

Rin stood up on knees made of jelly. The roaring in her ears drowned out her exhaustion, anger burning in her belly as she tried and failed to come up with a counterargument. But it couldn't end here – it couldn't, Kushina relied on them, Naruto depended on them –

"No," Shizune said.

Tsunade stopped in her tracks.

"No," Shizune repeated, and hope once more flared to life in Rin.

Tsunade turned her head, face a mask of puzzlement. "No? What –"

"No," said Shizune, balling her fists and lifting her chin. "We should go with them."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not. This isn't a life. You know that. You have to know that," Shizune pleaded. "We're just hiding away."

"There is _nothing_ for us in Konoha," Tsunade snapped. "Nothing, do you hear me?"

But Shizune was already shaking her head. "There's nothing for us here, either. We are not safe here. We are not safe anywhere, outside of Fire Country. We're just hiding, pretending we can't help people when actually, _we can_. We could do so much more."

"They would only press us into service, don't you see? They would use us, use _you_ –" Tsunade smashed a fist against the wall. "I promised to look after you."

"And you have," Shizune said, her voice breaking. Tears glistened in her eyes. "You have, in a thousand different ways, but now I think it's time for me to look after you, _and_ myself. We could have a home again, Shishou."

Pain flashed across Tsunade's face. "You _are_ my home."

Shizune swayed on her feet. "I know, Shishou. And you are mine. But I don't want to live like this anymore. Please. I want to go home. This place – this life – isn't good for either of us."

"But Konoha –"

"Is part of something terrible, I get it! I really do. It took my parents, and my uncle. But it's there, and so long as it exists people will see us as being part of it. Because of that, we won't be safe anywhere else." Shizune shook her head. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Rin shouldn't be here for this. She shouldn't be seeing this. Tsunade looked so small, suddenly. Judging by Kakashi's expression, he felt as out of place as she did. She stepped to his side and watched quietly.

"Rin and Kakashi are right, shishou. If we stay here, nothing will ever change. Not for us, and not for anyone else. I don't want to live like that anymore. I want to have a home, and friends. And if that has to be in Konoha," Shizune swallowed, took a deep breath. "Then why don't we just use your influence to our advantage. Work in the hospital. Or, or – I don't know, buy a house with a garden. Somewhere for you to just be. To _heal_ , shishou."

Tsunade looked on the verge of tears herself, her eyes large and shining in the golden morning light. "Shizune," she managed. "I didn't realize you were so – so unhappy –"

Shizune shook her head. "I love you, you know I do. But I'm –" she broke off, threw a self-conscious look at Rin and Kakashi. "I'm _lonely_. And I want purpose."

Tsunade's breath stuttered. She took a swaying step, then another, until she could place her hands a Shizune shoulders and wipe the girl's tears away. "I'm sorry. I didn't think of you. I should have. But, Shizune..."

"Please. Just for a little while."

"Shizune –"

"One month. Just one month. And Uzumaki -san."

Tsunade's jaw worked. She glanced over at Rin and Kakashi, then back at Shizune. "One month," she said. "Just one month. For your sake."

Shizune made a sound in the back of her throat and threw her arms around Tsunade, pulling her in a tight hug.

Rin watched, breathlessly, when a clammy hand took her own and squeezed. She looked. Kakashi's eyes were focused entirely on the two women, but he wove his fingers tightly through hers. She squeezed them back, and prayed that Shizune's plea would be enough.

 "All right," Tsunade said, voice muffled against Shizune's shoulder. "All right. We'll go and fix Uzumaki. After that, we will decide what to do next. No promises."

Rin and Shizune broke out into nearly identical grins. "Thank you, thank you thank you." Shizune pulled back, smiling through her tears. "We're going home."

Tsunade didn't smile. As the girls celebrated, Kakashi a quiet sentinel a few feet away, Tsunade raised her flask and downed it in one go.

* * *

 

The hair dye was coming out. Kakashi scratched his nails through the short, paling hairs and scowled at himself in the mirror. He took this washcloth and rubbed away the blood running from his ear down his jaw. The ear itself still felt numb but he could hear the girls talking on the other side of the bathroom door without turning his head. Some of the tension left his body. Being functionally half blind and half deaf would have been hard to compensate for.

He squinted at himself in the mirror. He'd need a shave, soon. He looked at the contours of his face and shivered. It was starting to look more and more like – He pulled the mask back up. Better. More like his mother.

He sighed. "Sorry, dad," he muttered. “Habit.”

He took one last look to make sure there was no more blood caking his arms or face, then shrugged his civilian T-shirt back on. It was the one with the "BITE ME" print he'd worn on the day they left.

 _Kushina will like it_ , he thought, and finally allowed himself a smile.

He left the bathroom. It was time to deliver Mister Weasel to the local authorities, wrapped up like a parcel. After that, they would finally go home, back to duty and battle, with the greatest healer in the world by their side.

And maybe, just maybe, they would get a small part of their family back.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise your local author with a review for quicker updates! <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homecoming, and a long awaited reunion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> High in the halls of the kings who are gone,  
> Jenny would dance with her ghosts  
> The ones she had lost  
> And the ones she had found,  
> And the ones who had loved her the most.
> 
> \- “Jenny of Oldstones”, Florence + the Machine

Chapter 13

Sarutobi's face was a study in confusion. It had been for the past two or so minutes, ever since Senju Tsunade had reluctantly crossed the threshold of his office escorted by a trio of eager, incredibly insubordinate, teenagers.

The first words that came out of his mouth were: “You understand, of course, your actions cannot go unpunished?”

Then, his professional veneer briefly shattering: “and _how on earth_ did you convince Tsunade to come with you?”

Tsunade sniffed contemptuously.

Underneath her contempt, however, was something Kakashi could only think of as a raw, nervous energy that had taken a hold of her the moment they crossed Fire Country’s borders. She had started drinking more and snapping more sharply, until even Shizune couldn’t escape her wrathful comments. Still, she seemed less like a cowardly mutt and more like a cornered dog, with the benefit of hindsight. Even Kakashi felt his attitude towards her soften, although some of his initial dislike was still very much present. No matter how much pain she was in, Tsunade had no right to inflict her misery on others.

That sort of thing has gotten Obito killed, and he was of no mind to forgive anyone for such bullshit.

Now, his own gut coiled tight with anxiety over whether she would be able to help Kushina as well as the repercussions of his and Rin’s insubordination, he felt rather more inclined to back her up before the Hokage.

Shizune stepped forward, buzzing with barely restrained energy. “We are here to help Uzumaki-san. And – and maybe, stay a little while so I can get to know my home.”

One of Sarutobi’s eyebrows rose. “And you are aware we are not a holiday destination?”

Shizune colored. “Very much so, sir.”

Kakashi stepped forward to help. “If they can heal Kushina-san, surely –“

Sarutobi held up his hand, his dark eyes drilling into Kakashi’s. “Have I given you leave to speak?”

Kakashi‘s jaw snapped shut and beside him, Rin twitched. Reevaluate and adjust, he thought, clenching his fists tightly at his side. “No, sir.”

Sarutobi nodded. “I will get to you and Rin soon. Now, Tsunade –“

Tsunade rolled her eyes. “Shizune is speaking the truth. We’re here for Uzumaki. Surely that should please you, _sensei_.”

Sarutobi’s wizened face lost some of its fire as he frowned, accentuating the lines around his eyes. “I had hoped, when you returned, it would be to stay.”

“You know that’s not going to happen.”

“I know why you stay away, but –“

“Leave it, Sarutobi.”

“Biwako is dead,” Sarutobi said, sharp as a whip. “I understand the desire to get away.”

Tsunade flinched. “Biwako-san..?”

Sarutobi’s wife. Asuma’s mother. Kakashi wondered if Tsunade had known her as well as he knew Kushina.

“You hadn’t heard?”

“I – no. Sensei –“

“I think you’ll find the longer you stay away, the more people you don’t get to say goodbye to,” Sarutobi said, relentlessly. “But I know you. There is no point in forcing you to do anything. You are of course welcome to try and help Uzumaki-san. I would be very pleased to see her back on her feet. After that, I suppose it is up to you. But I will not let you stay if you intend to make a nuisance of yourself.”

Tsunade was pale as a sheet, more like a scolded schoolchild than a living legend. When she spoke again, her voice was rough. “I didn’t know about Biwako-san. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Sarutobi nodded, the barest of acknowledgments. “She often spoke of you, the last few years. She tried to see a few of your innovations made into a standard practice at the hospital.”

Tsunade hung her head.

“Either way,” Sarutobi continued, “I would be happy to see you around the village more often. You are still my student, even as a grown woman and the hospital especially would benefit from your presence. As I’m sure it would benefit from your pupil’s presence.”

Tsunade’s head snapped back up. “You are not recruiting Shizune.”

Sarutobi held up his hands. “I’m not doing anything of the sort, although I think the young lady is perfectly capable of choosing for herself.” He nodded at Shizune. “Your uncle was a good person, as were your parents. If you wished to take an apprenticeship in the hospital, you would be most welcome. We can always use more talented healers.”

Shizune flushed at the attention. “Thank you, sir. I will keep it in consideration.”

Sarutobi nodded. “I suppose that is all we can hope for. “

He turned back to Tsunade. “Your old apartment is still waiting for you, I believe. You will go to see Uzumaki-san tomorrow, after you have rested. I will make sure hospital staff has been informed. After that, I think we should talk again. I would like to hear where you have been, and what your plans are for the future. Now, if you don’t mind, I have two insubordinate children to speak to.”

Children, huh? Kakashi swallowed. Grating language, given that he and Rin had officially become adults when they reached the rank of chunin, but if it indicated they would get a good old-fashioned scolding rather than a court-martial, it might be in their favor.

He straightened his shoulders and back and hoped that, with the short crewcut of his hair and the mask over his face he could counter the ridiculousness of facing up to Sarutobi’s scrutinizing gaze whilst wearing a BITE ME T-shirt stained from travel and use. Meet one of your youngest jounin, he thought scathingly, a bratty 16-year-old who exchanged his uniform for a cheesy print and whose hair is still growing out the worst dye job of the year. _The pride of his nation_.

Rin, at least, looked more presentable. Even when she looked peaky and tired she still possessed a nearly supernatural ability to look put together and clean. Her back was ramrod straight, accentuating the line of her neck and the proud tilt of her head. If he didn’t know her so well, he might not have noticed the tension in the lines of her face.

Sarutobi would know, though. He always seemed to know.

When Tsunade and Shizune left, he leveled Kakashi and Rin with his gaze, staring at them from behind steepled fingers. His shoulders slumped and he looked suddenly old, as though his energy had seeped out from his body with Tsunade’s departure.

“I understand why you left,” he began, slowing. “I even find myself impressed with your ability to track down a woman who has been trying very hard, for the past few years, not to be found. I’m most impressed of all with your ability to convince her to come with you.”

Kakashi didn’t dare to hope.

“But,” Sarutobi said, confirming his fears, “the level of insubordination you have shown me is tantamount to treason.”

Kakashi’s heart squeezed painfully in his chest.

“Nohara Rin, do you or do you not have an obligation to yourself and this country to preserve the bijuu you carry and keep out of harm’s way unless it is absolutely necessary?”

Rin didn’t flinch. “I do, sir.”

“Have you not sworn to secrecy regarding your condition?”

“I have, Sir.”

“You are aware, then, at the other villages were to find out the Sanbi is now in our hands, it could unleash a war?”

“I am aware, Sir.”

“And still, you left.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sarutobi turned to Kakashi. “And you, fully aware of all of these things, still indulged her?”

“Yes, sir,” Kakashi said.

Sarutobi sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Kushina was always a charming woman. I liked her a great deal. The trouble with her, and with Minato, however, was that she tended to inspire an awful lot of loyalty. Too much of it, I fear. To the point where, I suspect, the two of you are more loyal to her and each other than you are to Konoha.”

Kakashi’s stomach lurched. Could he deny it? Four years ago, the answer would have been simple. But that was before they had lost Obito, and before he truly known Rin, before Minato and Kushina have become more than merely superior officers.

His entire being railed against the idea of betraying his village. But betraying them? Abandoning them?

No, that was infinitely worse.

“Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash,” he said. The words felt foolish in a place where life and death was decided on a daily basis, but they didn’t feel any less true than when Obito had first uttered them.

Rin bit her lip. He had told her about those same words a long time ago, shortly after she had moved into his apartment. She had been lonely, desperate for some kind of anchor, and he had felt there was no one better to provide it but Obito. He remembered her tears, but also her gratitude.

Sarutobi’s face went blank, and for a moment looked terribly sad before he schooled it again. “Well,” he said, “you are your father’s son, I suppose.”

Pride warred with shame in Kakashi’s heart. A single glance at Rin was enough for pride to win out.

“I don’t want to be shackled,” Rin spoke up.

Sarutobi turned his weary gaze back on her. “We don’t always get what we want.”

“I’ve made a deal with him. With Sanbi. Isobu. His name is Isobu. He will fight with me, from now on. I have ensured it.”

As short and slender she was, all fragile wrists and delicate features, she seemed to Kakashi the most powerful person in the room. He believed her.

“I concur,” he said. “I’ve seen her do incredible things.” He remembered coral and torrents of water shooting up sky-high, extinguishing Jun’s flames and bathing the world in thick layers of steam. He believed her.

A brief silence followed during which Sarutobi merely stared at Rin.

“You will forgive me if I need more evidence than merely your observations,” Sarutobi finally said. “I will ask for Uchiha Fugaku to devise a test of your abilities. You will undergo it without question.”

The Hokage took a deep breath. “As for your punishment, I ought to demote you both. You are young and foolish, and perhaps not yet ready for the responsibility you carry. However, I do not wish to see your authority undermined in the eyes of your peers, who look up to you both. It is good for them to have strong examples to follow, and I believe you may eventually become worthy of the respect they hold for you. In the meantime, however, you are both suspended from active service for the following six months, allowed only to take on D-rank missions within the village to keep yourselves occupied. You may only leave the village in case of emergency or if no other fitting shinobi is available for a specific task, and then only under the supervision of another jounin. While you train, your tutors will monitor you closely, for which I believe Fugaku and his wife have a particular knack. And I hope you will count yourselves lucky.”

“Six months?” Kakashi said, stunned. “Six _months_?”

“You will accept my judgment, of course, Hatake-san –“

“I was given permission by Shimura-sama himself to leave the village –“ Kakashi said, fighting to keep a hold of his temper.

Sarutobi’s eyes flashed with surprise and anger. “Then you were a fool for believing it counted,” he said sharply. “I am your Hokage, not Danzou. I will ask you not to seek him out again, Kakashi. You are not to involve yourself in his business.”

Kakashi bit his tongue and forced himself into a sharp bow even asked his blood boiled with anger. “Understood, Hokage-sama,” he gritted out.

A year. A full year in which he would be unable to develop the way he ought to. A full year of missed experience to undermine his career, and the likelihood of ever making it to ANBU. His ears burned with humiliation. Did Danzo have so little authority after all? Or was this all Sarutobi, canceling an Elder’s orders out of spite?

Rin was still talking, but he couldn’t process her words. Eventually, she tugged him out of the office by his elbow, whispering quietly that it had all been worth it.

It would be, once Kushina woke up. But the price was a heavy one.

Neither of them noticed Sarutobi’s concerned gaze following them through the village as he watched them go from his office window.

* * *

Rin woke up to a whole new world the next morning. Isobu remained dormant deep within her, and the best medic in the world would look at Kushina and wake her up.

Another suspension hardly mattered when Rin had been stuck at home for the past two years. Even Kakashi’s frustration seems like a minor detail in the face of all that was right with the world. It had been a long time since she had last gotten out of bed with a sense of excitement.

She dressed quickly, and shuffled the simple breakfast Kakashi had made her down with an appetite. He watched her, vaguely amused, and only sighed when she dragged him along to find Shizune and Tsunade. He had the good grace to hide his own chagrin, and instead join her in her excitement over Kushina.

Tsunade groaned when she saw them on her doorstep, Rin wearing a wide grin. “Here’s another reason why we shouldn’t move here permanently, Shizune: we will have to fend these two off on a daily basis.”

Judging by Shizune’s smile, this was not a very effective threat. “Don’t mind her,” she confided in them, “she had a good night. She’s very angry about it.”

“She’s angry about having a good night?”

“Of course. If she had had a bad one, it would have reaffirmed her hatred towards the village.”

This made sense, in a twisted sort of way. Rin shook her head in bafflement, then happily followed the two women down the street towards the hospital. For the first time in two years, the trip wasn’t rife with a sense of dread. Instead, the feeling that took hold of her heart was one of excitement and terror alike. She missed Kushina, so much, but if Kushina woke up it would be to find that the world had gone on without her.

Still. She would have a chance at life again. That would have to be enough.

By the time they were received by hospital staff, Rin’s heart fluttered like a bird. “What if they fail?” She asked Kakashi quietly. “What if they can’t wake her up?”

He visibly hesitated. His eyes flick over to meet hers briefly before darting away. “Then we make them try again.”

“What if it’s impossible?”

He turned to face her with a frown. “Rin, what..?”

“I’m scared,” she admitted. “So excited, and happy, but – what if it doesn’t work?”

 He held her gaze long enough to make her stomach flip involuntarily. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. _If_ we come to it. Tsunade can perform miracles. And I haven’t seen her drink all day.”

Rin blinked. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Her hands were shaking. Not anymore, though.”

Rin looked over to where Tsunade spoke to one of the chief medical officers. She had her arms crossed over her chest, face turned up into his usual scowl, but the unhealthy blush of inebriation was missing. Her speech was sure and strong.

“She’s taking this seriously,” Kakashi said. “Whether that’s for our sake or Kushina’s I don’t know, but it will help.”

Rin’s eyes flicked over to Shizune, standing beside her teacher. She had a sneaking suspicion Shizune had a hand in her teacher’s sobriety, and felt another way of strong gratitude wash over her. “I’ve been thinking. We should invite Shizune over next time we hang out with our friends.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

Rin smiled faintly. “She said she wanted friends.”

He huffed out a laugh. “You’re incorrigible. Forever picking up strays.”

She flushed. “Well, someone has to. Some strays have this nasty habit of isolating themselves from others, even when the last thing they want is to be alone.”

His eyes softened into something warmer. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” he said, lowering his voice just enough to make her stomach flip again. He could ask her for anything in that voice and she would probably do it. Best that he never find that out. Her ears burned.

Fortunately Tsunade interrupted whatever their conversation was turning into by beckoning them both. “They’re taking me to Uzumaki’s room in the moment. You two want to wait here?”

Rin didn’t hesitate.  “I want to be there for her when she wakes up. So she has a familiar face. She shouldn't be alone.”

Kakashi shifted uncomfortably before nodding his assent.

Tsunade’s face darkened. “Very well. Knowing the two of you, you’d sneak in through the window I tried to refuse you anyhow. Just don’t get in my way.”

The time for snappy comebacks had passed. Rin was far too nervous, and Kakashi wore that look of intense concentration he usually reserved for battle. This was it. They had been fighting for this day for the last two years, ever since that night, six months after Kyuubi’s attack, where Kakashi had first suggested involving Tsunade. They had been desperately lonely, despite each other’s company, both longing for the kind of comfort only a trusted adult could bring and missing Kushina’s bright light in their lives.

This was it.

This was it.

She took Kakashi’s hand in her own, not caring who saw, and followed Tsunade down the hallway towards Kushina’s still form.

* * *

In the end, it took Tsunade almost five hours of frustrated muttering and the application of ever increasingly complicated seals onto Kushina’s bared skin. Kushina looked terribly vulnerable and small in her hospital bed, her hair as short as it had been the last time Rin saw her and her skin impossibly pale.

She and Kakashi sat in a corner, Rin hugging her knees to her chest and exhausted from the unrelenting anxiety, when Tsunade straightened up and said, “I think I’ve got it, now.”

Rin jerked up from her chair, hope etched across her face and eyes shining.

Tsunade caught her eye and sighed. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t think it was true. Here,” she pointed at a new seal over Kushina’s chest. “This one stabilizes her chakra system. It will limit her use of chakra in the future, but if we leave her chakra as erratic as it is now the organs will not be able to stabilize to a level where she can function without support. She may recover some of it with the right kind of therapy, but for now I think she should count herself lucky to be alive.”

“She will wake up? You activate the seal and she wakes up?” Kakashi asked, urgency radiating from his every word.

“Well, let’s see, shall we?” Tsunade said with half a smirk, and placed her hands on the seal. Then her chakra flared and burned with such overwhelming strength that Rin almost sank through her knees. The diamond shape on Tsunade’s forehead glowed a sharp blue as tendrils climbed out of it and spread across her forehead, down her temples and cheeks.

Kakashi gasped somewhere beside her and pulled up his headband, soaking it all in with his Sharingan. Rin watched breathlessly for any movement on the bed.

Tsunade’s chakra slowly faded to more manageable levels, and the markings on her face receded back into the diamond. She let out a long breath and stepped back.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Kushina’s mouth opened in a soft gasp. Her eyes opened, showing just a sliver of grey. She blinked at the ceiling.

“Kushina-nee,” Rin choked out, and rushed to the bed, one hand pressed to her mouth and the other searching for Kushina’s. It was happening. It was _finally_ happening.

Kushina’s brow furrowed and she turned her head to better see Rin. Unintelligible words got stuck in her throat. She sounded confused.

“Kushina-nee, it’s all right, you’re all right now,” Rin said, smiling through her tears. She pressed a kiss to the back of Kushina’s hand. “You’re okay.”

Kushina’s eyes searched hers and the furrow between her eyebrows deepened. “Wha..?” She croaked. “Where…”

“You’re in the hospital,” Rin said.

Kakashi appeared at her side, holding a glass of water out to Kushina. His eyes were dry, but Rin saw his hands tremble. “Can you sit up?” He asked gruffly.

“I don’t –“ Kushina tried to sit up but her elbows collapsed under her weight. Her arms were rake thin, all the muscle wasted away.

Tsunade stepped forward and effortlessly pulled her up.

Kushina eyed her warily. “You’re…”

“Yep,” Tsunade said, before putting a hand to Kushina’s forehead and checking Kushina’s pulse. “Drink. It will help with your throat.”

Kushina turned back, her eyes roving uncertainly over Kakashi and Rin. “Rin… Kakashi?”

Rin nodded.

“Why are you… So big?” Kushina croaked.

Rin swallowed. Kakashi had to be almost a foot taller than the last time Kushina had seen him, and while Rin had barely grown at all she had put on muscle and subtle curves. Their faces had changed too, slowly leaving behind the softness of childhood.

How to explain to Kushina she had missed two years of her life? Almost three?

Kushina shifted in the bed. “Where is Minato? Why isn’t he here? What’s going on? Why aren’t I –” her voice broke. “Why aren’t I dead?”

Rin _ached._ Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. “Kushina-nee, there’s really no good way to tell you…”

Kushina’s eyes latched back onto Rin’s face. “Tell me anyway,” she said, as firmly as she possibly could with her ruined voice.

Kakashi’s expression was unusually gentle.  “You’re alive because we asked Tsunade-sama to help you. Before that, nobody could wake you up. You were in a coma.”

“How long?”

Rin swallowed. “Two years,” she said, stroking the back of Kushina’s hand. “It’s been two years.”

The words didn’t immediately register with Kushina. She shook her head, confused, before understanding dawned. “Two…years?” She looked over to Tsunade as if to confirm.

Tsunade nodded. “You were a mess, kiddo.”

Kushina covered her mouth. “Two years,” she echoed, and then felt for her hair. “Where…?”

“It was easier to take care of your hair when it was short,” Rin admitted reluctantly. “I’m so sorry.”

Kushina shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Where is Minato?”

Rin’s throat constricted and her chest ached. “Kushina-nee…”  
  
"He's dead, isn't he?" Kushina asked. Her face remained impassive, as though the vestiges of her coma still clung to her awareness, but her eyes shone with tears.

It was Kakashi who answered her, by giving her a slow nod.

Kushina's expression crumpled. Her breath hitched and she sobbed, just the once. She turned her head towards the window. Outside, the sky remained a cloudless blue. A sparrow darted past, singing brightly.

"And my son?" Kushina asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Alive and well, Kushina-nee, I promise," Rin said, unable to bear that broken voice for any longer. "He's safe, and waiting for you."

Something shattered behind Kushina's eyes and her tears finally spilled over, running down her cheeks. Her breath hitched, but she didn't sob. "Naruto," she managed. "My boy. I want to see him."

Kakashi briefly leaned down to squeeze her hand, copying a move he had often seen Rin use. "I'll go get him, okay? As soon as you're okay."

"I want him _now_."

Rin hesitated. "Kushina-nee, we – we need to explain it to him first. He doesn't know you're awake yet. You're – you're not well. Perhaps we should wait to bring him here until you feel a little bit better. So we don't confuse him."

Kushina's face contorted into a snarl before it relaxed again. "I want to see him," she repeated weakly.

Rin met Kakashi's eye and saw her own doubt reflected on his face. He turned to Tsunade, who regarded her patient with a stony expression.

"Is it safe?" He asked. "Is she... Stable?"

"As stable as possible," Tsunade said bluntly. "You can get the kid. Give her something to look forward to."

Kushina huffed. "Why are you asking her? I am his mother."

"Naruto... Doesn't quite understand that yet," Rin explained, gently brushing some hair off of Kushina's forehead. "We took him to see you all the time, Kushina-nee, I promise, but he's so very little. You're just an abstract to him right now."

She winced, hating herself for saying it. "He will need some time to adjust."

Kakashi stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking studiously at his feet. "I'll try to explain on the way," he said gruffly. "That you woke up, or something, and want to see him. It doesn't have to be complicated. He'll be excited."

He met Rin's eyes again, until finally she relented. Kushina needed this. Rin tried to imagine what it would be like to wake up and find two years of your life missing, your husband dead, and your child in someone else's custody. She couldn't. Naruto _would_ be excited, and his mother needed an anchor.

"Okay," she said softly. "Kakashi will go and get him for you."

It was worth it just to see some of the tension leave Kushina's face.

* * *

_Kushina’s awake. Kushina’s awake._

That single thought occupied Kakashi’s mind as he blindly made his way through the village. His lips were stretched in an unbreakable smile even as his stomach was clenched tight from nerves and his throat felt constricted with grief. Was it possible to be so desperately happy and sad at the same time? He hadn’t known it to be.

Kushina’s awake, and grieving for Minato-sensei, he thought, replaying the memory of her crumpling form when she first learned about his death. He had worried she would scream, but in a way her silence was worse. Kushina was life and levity. He had never seen her grieve.

It brought to life the pain in his own chest that he had tried so desperately to ignore these past two years. Rin had cried herself to sleep for two weeks straight. He had choked away sobs under the shower and tried, desperately, not to think of what Minato had looked like in death, instead drowning himself in missions and training and Naruto.

He wasn’t very good at grieving.

They didn’t have to grieve for Kushina but, he suspected, perhaps they would grieve for who she had been before. This small, sad woman in the hospital wasn’t who he remembered.

 Perhaps Naruto would help.

Kakashi knocked on the door of Ushio’s apartment and waited for it to open.

"Kashi-nii!" Naruto cried happily, ducking underneath his caretaker's legs and wobbling across the threshold of Ushio's apartment. Kakashi quickly picked him up under the armpits to avoid one of the kid's usual pratfalls, and settled him on his hip.

"Hey, kid. Are you allowed to open up doors yet?"

"Nuh-uh."

"And yet, here he is, opening up doors," Ushio sighed, crossing her arms. "What is it? You guys have been gone for a while."

"Yeah – sorry about that," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. Naruto quickly copied him, his grubby little hand grabbing at Kakashi's nape.

"We've been on a mission," Kakashi said. "It worked out, and now –" he swallowed. “Kushina’s awake.”

Naruto didn't so much as flinch. He didn't associate the name with his mama, but of course Ushio understood what it meant. Her face went carefully blank.

"I see," she said. "And now you've come here to collect Naruto?"

"Only for a little bit. She's in no condition to take care of him yet. She needs to know he's okay."

Ushio's jaw clenched, the muscle rippling underneath her skin. "I see. I'm... Glad she's all right. She was – is a good girl. That said –"

"You haven't just been forgotten," Kakashi quickly improvised, only now realizing what it would look like to Ushio. "You've been his caretaker for two years, and you've done – well, you took care of him when no one else could. Kushina will be grateful."

He couldn't quite bring himself to say, you've done a good job. It didn't feel right. Still, he watched her dark eyes flick over the little boy and knew that she cared, even if she had a hard time showing it.

"Will you bring him back?" She asked, finally.

He nodded. "Yeah. We'll figure out how to go on when we know more about how Kushina is recovering."

"Recov'ring," Naruto mimicked.

"That's right," Kakashi said, peeling the toddler's fingers away from his mask. "We will figure it out along with the Hokage."

"Hokage!" Naruto cried dutifully, as he always did when he heard that particular word.

After a moment, Ushio unfolded her arms. She stepped forward and brushed a fleck of chocolate off of Naruto's cheek with her sleeve. "All right. Bring him back before dark." She turned, and closed the door behind her.

Kakashi remained where he was, still staring at the closed door. "Rude. Your Ushio is a rude lady."

"Rude lady!" Naruto chirped, once again fiddling with Kakashi's mask.

Kakashi gently pushed his little hand away. "That's right. Don't be like her, Naruto."

"I'm a rude boy," Naruto informed him, before bursting into giggles.

"Can't argue with that. You ready to go for a little trip to go see your mama?"

"Mama! Yes!" Naruto smiled and nearly wiggled out of Kakashi's arms in his excitement. "Wanna see mama."

Kakashi nodded and turned away from the door, starting the trek back to the hospital. As always, he caught a few surprised looks from passerby's who didn't seem to know how to reconcile the scarred, teenage shinobi with the little boy giggling and bouncing in his arms.

"There's something a little different about your mama this time, though," he said, biting the bullet.

"Different?"

"Yup. We got this mean old lady to come and wake her up."

"Mean lady?"

"Don't forget old."

Naruto fidgeted. His smile faded a little. "And mama?"

"Is awake now. And really wants to see you."

Uncanny blue eyes met charcoal gray. "Is mama a mean lady?" Naruto asked, his voice tiny.

Kakashi's heart ached. "No, no, Naruto. She's the nicest lady there is."

Naruto looked down, pouting a little. "Promise?"

"On my life."

Naruto considered this. "Okay."

 “She loves you,” Kakashi heard himself say. “You’re going to love her so much.”

“She loves me?”

“So much. That’s what mothers do.” Probably, anyway. At a guess.

“Okay.”

“So don’t be scared, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Though she might be a little sad.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re so big now. She wanted to see you get big.”

“She saw me.”

“Yeah, but, she was always asleep, remember?” Kakashi said. Perhaps this was too complicated. Perhaps all he had to do was take Naruto to his mother and let nature take its course. If only Minato had been here to have this conversation himself.

Naruto burrowed his face into Kakashi’s shoulder with a thoughtful frown. “Now she’s awake,” he repeated.

“Yep.”

Naruto said nothing else, letting himself be carried to the hospital in silence. All the way, his fists were clenched tightly in Kakashi’s shirt.

 Kakashi felt his own heartbeat speed up when he entered the hospital and headed towards Kushina's ward. He was grateful she had a private room, away from the handful of other residents of the permanent stay ward. He had often caught glimpses of them as he passed by to visit, and found their stillness incredibly eerie.

They were the living dead, and at last Kushina could no longer be counted amongst them.

Kushina was facing away from the door when he returned, curled up on her side. Rin sat on the bed beside her, stroking her shoulder as she softly talked to Kushina about Naruto. She was in the middle of a rendition of one of Naruto’s many escapes from babysitting custody when Kakashi rapped his knuckles against the open door.

Rin looked up and smiled. “They’re here, Kushina-nee, look.”

Kushina turned very slowly onto her back, her face carefully schooled into something other than despair, but her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. Her breath caught when she saw them, eyes immediately training on her son who answered her case with an equally wide-eyed awe. His fingers gripped and loosened Kakashi’s collar almost compulsively.

“Here we go,” Kakashi said carefully. “There is your mom.”

Kushina’s chin trembled. “Help me sit up,” she told Rin, and then extended her arms. “Would you give him to me?”

Naruto buried his face against Kakashi’s neck, suddenly shy. Kakashi rubbed circles across his back. He felt incredibly small and warm in his arms.

“It’s okay, Naruto. Remember what I told you?” Kakashi said, hoping to whatever God would listen that this would work out.

Naruto stared at him wide-eyed, then back at his mother. “Mama?” He asked.

Kushina sobbed just once, bringing a hand to her mouth, and then held out her arms. “That’s right, my sweet boy. I’m your mom.”

Finally, Kakashi walked over to her bed and placed Naruto in his mother’s arms for the very first time.

Kushina’s breath hitched and she folded her arms tightly and held her son until he began to squirm. She laughed and brushed his cheeks with her thumbs. Naruto broke into a smile at last.

“You look like your father,” she said, considering, “but I think you have my attitude. I can tell.”

Naruto smiled a heartbreaking little smile. After a moment, Kushina mimicked it.

“My baby boy,” she said. “You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

Naruto hiccupped and laughed as she pulled him back into her embrace.

Obito’s eye started to weep. Kakashi let it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn’t think I would let them fail at this point, did you?
> 
> I would like to thank everyone who has kept up with the story and its predecessor for the past few years. It’s not quite over yet, but I will wrap Inheritance up in the next chapter. 
> 
> What do you think? Are the kids ready for any sort of love confession or is Kakashi's emotional repression going to get the better of them for another few years?
> 
> Surprise your local author with a review <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, folks.

Naruto was a warm weight across Kushina's chest and belly, breath tickling her neck as he slept.

Kushina had become a lot of things today, and mother was the best of them. She might never be a shinobi again, might never use her jutsu or defend her kids. That one hurt. She thought the word "widow" and wanted to tear off her blankets, walk to the window and scream.

Her beautiful husband.

Her chest ached. Her head ached, her heart. Minato, Minato, Minato.

Outside, Konoha continued as it always had. They weren't even mourning anymore. Perhaps it would have been easier if they were. Perhaps it would have felt more real, if she wasn't the only one.

Perhaps then she might have known what to do next.

From a practical point of view, it was pretty obvious. Get out of the hospital, get back to her apartment, raise her baby (her baby, oh God) and get on with things. Breathe. Just take it one day at a time.

Even getting out of bed seemed like too much work. Taking a shower, putting on new clothes… Confronting her own image in the mirror.

She hadn't seen her own face yet, but she could piece together that she didn’t look the same as before from the quiet distress in Rin and Kakashi's eyes when they looked at her. Like they didn't quite know her anymore.

Hell, she didn't know them anymore. Two years is a long time for a child, let alone a teenager is. Kakashi had easily grown a head taller than her by now. His shoulders were growing wider and real muscle tone was building on his arms. Rin remained short and would likely never be curvy, exactly, but Kushina could see how her gentle features had grown stronger and sharper, with a hardness to her eyes Kushina had not seen there before.

They had told her, slowly but surely, about the lengths they had gone to to save her. Just what they had risked, but also what they had achieved between the two of them. Minato's kids looked after Naruto while she was gone, and they went and risked their lives to save her, and she loved them, so much.

Her kids had grown up without her. Was there a word for that?

Her baby smacked his lips and wriggled against her, breaking her out of her thoughts. God, he was so full of trust. Those beautiful blue eyes had been wary for all of a minute before filling up with unconditional love and, and... It was overwhelming. It was exactly what she wanted, two years ago (it feels like two days).

This wasn’t how she wanted it, but Kushina remembered being ten years old and having just lost her family, being moved to a strange village in a strange country, and being made into a jinchuuriki – all without her say so. She chose to have a baby. She chose Naruto. She chose this little golden being whom she had only just met but already loved more than anything or anyone else.

Even without Minato, there was no way she would ever go back on such a promise.

"I'll be the best mom you can imagine," she whispered, trailing a finger across her son's cheek. "Just give me a little while to be sad, okay? I'll be there for you all the way, baby boy. I promise. And I'll tell you all about your dad as you grow up so you'll know what a hero he was, and how much he loved you too."

Naruto didn't wake up, and that was okay. In a few hours, Kakashi and Rin would come to take him back to his caretaker. It did was going to be heart-wrenching to be separated from him at all, but Kushina knew she needed time to recover and do the worst of her grieving. She needed time so she could be a better mom later. When they had picked up the baby, she would get out of bed all by herself and go and take that shower.

 _One step at a time_.

* * *

 

Rin decided it was time to tell Kurenai on the day Kushina was able to walk down the hall without support for the very first time. Life was improving slowly but surely, but there were loose ends to tie up. She wanted honesty, and as little deceit as she could manage, in her daily life.

So, she told Kakashi, trusting him to keep his promise, and together they set out to meet with Kurenai. Rin felt strangely calm throughout their walk, Kakashi a solid presence beside her. Whatever happened, she would be okay. If Kurenai wanted to end their friendship over this, so be it.

It would hurt, but Rin knew she could survive pain. She had done so before, after all.

Kurenai’s mother wasn’t home, so they didn’t have to relocate. Kurenai eyed them with curiosity and trepidation alike as she let them in. “I wasn’t expecting you,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

Rin nodded. “Is it okay if we sit down?”

“Sure... Is everything okay?” Kurenai’s eyes darted over towards Kakashi, trying to get a read on him. His face remained impassive.

When they were finally seated, Rin ran her hands across the tablecloth, briefly focusing on its texture to push away the sudden burst of nerves. “There’s something I want to tell you,” she said. “Something I should have told you a long time ago.”

“Rin… You’re my friend. You can tell me anything,” Kurenai said, and reached out to take Rin’s hand.

Rin pulled her hands away, tucking them under the table. Kurenai might not want to hold them again, once she knew.

She steeled herself.

"Do you... Have you ever heard the word jinchuuriki?" Rin asked slowly. She could feel the texture of the wooden table below her fingers and started picking at it until she could separate a small, uneven piece with her fingernail. She wiggled it around, not daring to look up at Kurenai.

"I have," Kurenai said. "Rin, what – what does that have to do with anything?"

Rin felt a tremor running through her body. She gripped the edge of the table. She felt as though she might drift away, weightless, if she didn't hold onto something. "Everything," she said, and found herself smiling even as tears burned in her eyes.

Kurenai’s hands clenched reflexively on the empty table. "Rin?"

Rin's eyes flicked up briefly to meet Kurenai's, wide and concerned. "You can't tell anyone. What I'm about to tell you. Would you promise me not to tell anyone?"

"Of course. You're my friend. But, Rin, you're scaring me."

Rin smiled involuntarily. "That's okay. It scares me too. But you're one of my best friends, and I can't… Lie to you any longer. I don't want to be afraid anymore."

Kurenai's hand squeezed her own. "I promise not to tell anyone. Whatever it is."

Rin finally looked up again. Kurenai's brow was furrowed, and the corners of her lips pulled down with worry. Her eyes flicked over to Kakashi, but he said nothing.

"I'm the Sanbi jinchuuriki," Rin said. Her voice trembled. "And I have been for two years."

Kurenai's eyes were wide and scared and unreadable, and for a moment Rin couldn't breathe. Below the table, Kakashi's knee bumped into hers, a quiet sign of his support. She wanted to lean into his warmth and disappear, to just not have to be here for this moment, where Kurenai looked at her like she had never seen her before.

"You're –?" Kurenai's jaw worked soundlessly. She pulled her hands back and leaned into her chair, still staring. "How?" She finally asked. Her voice sounded small.

Rin swallowed around the lump in her throat, and nodded. "Do you remember when I was injured, two years ago? Just before I moved out of dad's place."

Kurenai blinked. Her eyes turned glassy. "You weren't just injured."

Rin shook her head. "I was sent out on a routine mission as team medic. It was a team I hadn't worked with before, but things were going all right. Until we were ambushed. I'm not sure why they picked me out of everyone, but they did. They brought me back to –"

She had to stop to breathe for a moment. She remembered the gag cutting into the corners of her mouth. The blindfold over her eyes, and the manacles cutting into the skin of her wrists. They had put some sort of seal on her to block out her chakra.

"They brought me back to Kirigakure, and there they sealed Sanbi in me."

She remembered that, too. Remembered the impassive faces of the men and women around her, uncaring where she lived or died. Then, the throb of immense chakra – followed by pain. Drowning.

Kurenai remained silent, so Rin pushed on. "They designed the seal so it would break whenever they wanted it to. Kakashi came after me, but they – they wanted him to. Wanted him to break me out, take me back home."

Kurenai's hands flew to her mouth. "They turned you into a bomb," she croaked.

Rin took a deep breath and nodded. There was no recrimination in Kurenai's words. Disgust, yes, but Rin couldn't tell who it was aimed at. So long as she didn't know, she could keep going. "But they chased after us anyway. I'm… I'm not sure why. I thought at first was just for show, but… They attacked us. Fought us, tried to stop us from leaving. I don't entirely understand."

"The Mizukage may not have informed them," Kakashi said quietly. "Or perhaps I got to you too early. There are a lot of options."

Rin gave him a faint smile, grateful for his help. "Either way, things... Got rough. But then Minato sensei appeared, and saved us. He stabilized my seal and took me home. It took them months to figure out how to repair it permanently."

"You said it was a long-term mission…" Kurenai said.

"I lied. About everything. I'm so sorry, Kurenai. Kakashi is the only person who knows, aside from the Hokage and two other people who have helped me with training." Her chest burned. "I wanted to tell you, but I was scared."

"Oh, Rin," Kurenai said, and the compassion in her voice finally pushed Rin over the edge. Tears began to spill down her cheeks.

"Rin, your dad," Kurenai said, and she sounded so sad that an ugly sob broke loose from Rin's throat.

"Did he make you leave? Did he – oh, that bastard," Kurenai choked off.

"The worst," Kakashi grumbled, and this time when Kurenai looked at him it was with renewed respect.

Rin's chest restricted. "I don't know – he's not wrong to be scared. I'm scared. Sanbi is overwhelming, anyone would be scared."

"That's not true, though," Kurenai said gently. "I'm not scared of you. You're my friend."

Rin looked up again, and saw Kurenai getting to her feet and circling around the table. Rin stared at her, uncomprehending, until Kurenai caught her in a hug.

"Oh, you silly girl," Kurenai muttered into her ear. "I don't care how scary Sanbi is. I know you." She pulled back to look at Rin, tears running down across her cheeks as well. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

Rin bit down on another sob but it came through anyway, racking through her throat and chest as it forced its way out. Kurenai didn't care. Kurenai didn't – she wasn't scared, she just…

A laugh bubbled up from her throat as pure relief overtook her. It was still tinged with pain and confusion (because why couldn't her dad, if everyone else could?) but it felt like a massive weight lifted off her shoulders. She had been right. Honesty would see her through.

"Thank you," she sobbed into Kurenai's shoulder. "Thank you both, for not…"

For not leaving.

How could her dad have left her?

She felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder rubbing awkward circles. Kurenai smelled pleasantly of lavender. Their company was comforting in a way it had rarely felt before.

She wasn't sure how long it took, but eventually her sobs subsided and Kurenai went back to her own chair. Kakashi pulled his hand back as well, but the worry in his good eye was still there. Rin felt the overwhelming urge to hug him, too. Feel his strength against her. He had never let her down. Never would, either, she knew. She gave him a watery smile, all too aware that it wasn't enough to express her gratitude. Still, he smiled back.

She took a deep breath. "I figure you might have a few more questions."

"Tea first," Kurenai said, getting up. "And chocolate."

Rin laughed and wiped at her eyes. She felt like a mess.

"You did good," Kakashi told her quietly. "And I don't think I have to assassinate anyone."

She laughed again. "Please don't."

"If you're going to assassinate anyone in my kitchen, Hatake, you get to do cleanup yourself," Kurenai said, stepping back into the room with a tray.

"That was rather the idea."

Kurenai narrowed her eyes at him, before suddenly nodding. "I did wonder, you know. Why you would move in with him, of all people. But I think I get it now." She smiled. "You take good care of each other."

Rin flushed and at her side, she saw Kakashi's ears go red.

"He's not so bad," she managed, wanting desperately to be more honest in that department too, but not quite daring to.

"Yeah, well, someone has to look out for us," he said gruffly.

Rin saw the subtle flinch cross Kurenai's face. “I suppose so,” she said softly. “The two of you haven’t had it easy, have you? We all knew things were difficult, but we didn’t know everything. And there you were, suffering. I’m so sorry.”

Rin shook her head again. “It was my choice not to tell you. After what dad did, I didn’t know who I could trust.”

Kurenai let out a shuddering breath. “I do understand, as much as I’m able to. Do you want to tell the others as well? I think they would understand too.”

Rin hesitated, and Kakashi’s shoulders tensed. “I don’t know. Maybe eventually, but… I’m not really allowed to tell anyone. Konoha isn’t supposed to have a second jinchuuriki, you know. If word got out…”

“Maybe later, then,” Kurenai said. “When they stop having eating contests or wearing pajamas on missions – that was Anko, in case you couldn’t tell.”

Rin sniffed and smiled. “Maybe later.”

“Thank you for telling me, Rin. Thank you for trusting me,” Kurenai said.

“Thank you for not condemning me for it,” Rin replied.

“It’s not your fault. And you’re still you, right? That demon isn’t in charge?”

“He’s not.”

“That’s all I need,” Kurenai said, and pulled her in for another hug. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Rin hid her face in Kurenai’s sweater, thinking of all the things that were going right, and feeling happier to be alive than she had been in years.

* * *

 

“Thank you for being there for me,” Rin said later, as they walked back to the apartment. “I’m grateful that Kurenai accepted me, but you were there all along. You never hesitated to help me. I just…” She looked up at him with a teary smile. “You’re my best friend.”

Kakashi’s heart flipped in his chest. One hand reached out automatically to rub at the back of his head and his gaze landed on his feet. “It’s no trouble,” he muttered.

“Not everyone would have stuck with me the way you have,” Rin said, bumping her shoulder against his with a teasing smile, and God, if she was going to keep smiling at him like that he would dissolve into a puddle.

He managed a shrug. “You’re my best friend too,” he said, forcing himself to say it. “And…” He stopped himself. He wasn’t ready yet, wasn’t good enough yet, not for her. Maybe someday, if she still wanted him.

“All you have to do is ask,” he said instead.

Her smile widened and she darted towards him, pushing herself up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his cheek. She dropped down and out of range immediately, blushing. “I’ll see you at home later?” She said, as though she hadn’t just made the ground shake beneath his feet.

“Uhh,” he said, still floating, “Yeah. Sure. I’ll pick up food from the store. See you. I’ll. Soon.”

She gave him a surprised grin, then waved and quickly turned away, running down the street. He watched her go for a while, his heart still pounding. Had that really happened? It must have done.

Right. On your feet, soldier. Forward, march.

He took a deep breath and then turned down an alley to the left, towards a nearby grocery store. He was still deep in thought by the time he left the store, grocery back in his arms, and so didn’t immediately notice the somewhat familiar chakra signature creeping up on him when he turned right into a narrow alley.

 “I heard about your suspension,” a voice said from the shadows. As Kakashi looked, the dark nook he had mistaken for empty shifted and changed until he could make out Danzou’s features. The old man looked as calm and composed as ever.

Kakashi swallowed down the spike of adrenaline. He hadn’t been on guard – rookie mistake. He switched gears and decided on anger. “Yeah? And whose fault is that?” He said, turning to face the old man.

“Whoever sentenced you, I imagine.”

That infuriating old – “It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't lied,” Kakashi bit out.

“I'm not the liar in this scenario,” Danzou said calmly.

“Yes you are. Or I wouldn't be in this mess.”

Danzou sighed and leaned a little heavier on his cane, the lines in his face deepening as he frowned. “You shouldn't be, that much is true. I am an elder. That does give me the authority to grant you leave,” Danzou said.

“Clearly not.”

“But it does. You can look up the law if you like. Sarutobi abused his power to punish you and in the process punish me. He has never liked me or my position. He wants to keep all power to himself.”

Kakashi blinked. Had he heard that correctly? Was there really that much dissent amongst Sarutobi’s inner Council?

Danzou raised his visible eyebrow. “Have you never noticed how dismissive he is when others show initiative?”

“ ... I don't know,” Kakashi said, truthfully. He looked up, instinctively scanning the nearby rooftops for anyone who might be listening in.

“Then take it from an old man who has known him for a long time.”

“ ... I don't know if I should.”

“Do you or do you not want autonomy?”

Kakashi hesitated. “ I shouldn't .”

”What are you, a dog?” Danzou asked, and finally a thread of emotion colored his voice.

Kakashi bristled. ”I am a soldier of-“

”But you could be so much more! He is stunting your growth, holding you back,” Danzou said, stepping closer.

”There is no alternative.” Aside from treason, perhaps.

Danzou smiled faintly. ”Oh, but there is. Do you trust me?”

Kakashi hesitated. Did he? Did he trust anyone in charge of the village at this time?

He decided upon, ”I don't know.”

”You're a wise young man. Never trust anyone who hasn’t proven themselves to be trustworthy. But if you give me a chance, I will show you your path to power,” Danzou said, and his voice sounded so reasonable even when his words weren’t.

”I don't want power for power’s sake,” Kakashi said.

”But you do want influence. And for that you need power.”

“How do you know I want influence?” Kakashi replied.

Danzou spread his hands. “Your frustration speaks for itself. Besides, you have grown up under the tutelage of men and women with great influence. You have had a taste of what things are like, so it’s more difficult to accept the alternative.”

Kakashi had to begrudgingly admit the truth of his words. He had grown up surrounded by legends and found himself capable of keeping up with them. It would be difficult, intellectually, to accept anything less than a certain modicum of influence and respect. Still…

He made a quick calculation, and made the leap.

”What are you suggesting?” He asked.

Danzou finally smiled. “Haven't you always wanted to join the elite of the elite?

* * *

“You know,” Shizune said, leaning back into the booth of the barbecue place, “I really do like this place. I’ve been thinking about staying, you know?”

Rin looked up from her meal with some surprise. To their right, in the corner of the booth, Gai, Anko, Asuma and Kakashi were creating small paintings on their plates with meat and condiment while Kurenai judged their efforts by holding up napkins with grades. They were all being unnecessarily loud about the whole thing, and frankly, Rin would have expected Shizune to run for the hills. Admittedly, Gai’s creation was surprisingly artistic (if messy) and Anko was putting in great effort, sending Shizune anxious looks every now and then as though she wanted to impress the older kunoichi.

It had been almost two weeks since Kushina had woken up, and according to Shizune, Tsunade was getting antsy.

“She wants to start touring Fire Country, helping out local hospitals,” Shizune said, smiling proudly. “And that’s great, it really is, but I’m thinking it would be nice to stay here. Make some friends,” she said, nodding at the other teenagers.

“It’s… nice, being here. I have an apartment I can actually choose to decorate because I won’t have to leave it in a few days’ time. I met my neighbors yesterday, and they were lovely. Tomorrow morning, Kurenai is going to show me around the training fields. I like living like this. I like the stability.”

“Then stay,” Rin said, and added, trying not to laugh, “We’re happy to have you. Just don’t get intimidated by Gai’s use of ketchup – I swear it’s only a mildly accurate representation of his personality.”

Shizune laughed. “You know, Kakashi really is a dab hand with condiments. His technique is very delicate,” she remarked, biting down on a smile.

Rin’s lips turned up automatically. “Don’t forget Anko’s creative use of those spareribs. I think she’s very eager to impress you.”

Shizune blushed. “I think she might be, yes. You’ve collected a fine little troop of idiots. I’d be happy to join them. If it gets to be too much, you, Kurenai and I can always go rogue.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Rin sent back into her chair and pushed her plate away. She’d had more than enough. She didn’t much care for meat herself, but Isobu rumbled happily from the darkness. If she could keep him happy with such offerings, she would happily eat barbecue meat all week.

She looked at the clock. Almost time to go. “Kakashi, it’s almost eight,” she said. “Are you coming?”

His head shot up, his concentration slowly leaving his meat-art and focusing on her instead. “Oh, right. Yeah – just a minute. Kurenai, who won?”

Rin rolled her eyes, still smiling, as Kurenai pointed at Gai and the booth once more burst out in roars. Gai could still be seen dancing on the table a minute later, when Rin and Kakashi had gone outside. The outside air felt delightfully cool on her skin after the oppressive heat of the barbecue place.

The trek to the hospital only took them a few minutes.

“Thanks, kids,” Kushina said, when they pushed her wheelchair out from the hospital’s main entrance about twenty minutes later. “Just wheel me around the corner, so I can get out without any of the nurses chasing me down. Can you believe they still don’t want me running around? They’re definitely babying me.”

“Well, you are still a little –“ Kakashi began, but a sharp look from Kushina cut him off.

“If you are about to say I look pale, that’s only because I haven’t been outside for two years. And the only reason I’m still this skinny is because hospital cooks have no idea how to prepare proper ramen. The first thing I’ll do tomorrow is visit Ichiraku’s. Ichiraku’s is still there, right?” Kushina went on, swinging from left to right in her seat to take in all the sights. Her eyes, though still underlined with exhaustion, were large and bright.

“They still exist,” Rin said. “But if you try to leave this wheelchair, I will put you back in it myself.” She smiled prettily.

Kushina grimaced at her. “Dang, girl. When did you get so scary?”

Rin shrugged. “I’m only scary when my patients won’t listen.”

Kushina hummed thoughtfully. “Good to know,” she said after a moment, and didn’t try to get out of the wheelchair again.

The graveyard was quiet, this time of the evening. An older woman sat at a grave near the pathway, quietly chattering away at the headstone before dipping her head towards them in a greeting. Further away, a group of genin was sponging down the stones of another row.

Rin, Kakashi, and Kushina moved on, towards the back of the graveyard where a set of great, red stones marked the graves of the Hokage. The closer they got, the smaller Kushina seemed to become.

The gravel crunched underneath the chair’s wheels as they came to a stop.

_Namikaze Minato._

_Yondaime Hokage._

_26 Years of Age._

_Perished Defending Konoha from the Greatest Threat it had Ever Seen._

A bird wheeled overhead, chirping out a cheerful song. The setting sun cast deep shadows behind the stones.

“It’s funny,” Kushina said, “we always knew he would be buried right here, underneath one of these ugly old things. We used to joke about it, that I’d smuggle his body away into a different grave without telling anyone, or something. I guess even when we were joking, we both knew he would go first.”

Her voice broke and she bent forward, covering her mouth with her hands. “But I didn’t think it would be so soon, you beautiful idiot.”

Kakashi closed his eyes and looked away. Rin didn’t bother hiding, and let the tears run freely down her cheeks. It wasn’t difficult at all to access the old pain, fresh as it was to Kushina. She pressed herself up against the back of the wheelchair and placed her hands on Kushina’s shoulders in a silent show of support. If she heard Kakashi’s breathing hitch every now and then, she didn’t comment on it. He needed to grieve in his own way.

After a while, Kushina looked up again. “Can you hold the chair for me? I want to stand up.”

Rin obeyed, stabilizing the chair so she could push herself up and come to a wobbly stand. Kakashi stepped forward and offered her his arm, and after a brief hesitation Kushina took it. They stepped forward together until Kushina could kneel before the stone and brush her fingers across the flowers that have been left there. She picked one up and inhaled deeply. Rin watched her with bated breath.

“But you haven’t been forgotten,” Kushina said softly. “And you never will be, my love.”

“He’s a hero,” Kakashi muttered. “He saved so many lives. And so did you, Kushina.”

He had dropped the –nee, Rin noticed. As if he wanted to represent how their bond had changed, after watching over Kushina’s still body for two years.

“Does Naruto know who his father was?” Kushina asked.

“We told him. But I’m not sure he understood,” Rin said, joining them at the foot of the grave.

Kushina nodded. “Then I will just keep telling him until he does. I wanted to thank you both, by the way. For looking after him, when we couldn’t. I’m sure that Ushio woman did her best, but it gives me more comfort to know the two of you were there.”

“Of course,” Rin said softly. “He’s family. You’re family.”

Kushina nodded. She looked a little dazed. “He would have been so proud of you, you know? You – the two of you – you inherited his Will of Fire. More than that, you inherited his heart. He would have been so proud.”

Kakashi perched between Kushina and Rin and, in an uncharacteristic display of affection, carefully draped his long arms across their shoulders. “He would have been proud of no one more than you,” he said, and God, Rin loved that boy.

Kushina snorted and rubbed a new tear from her cheek. “I leave for two years, and suddenly Rin is scary and you are, what, _charming_? You’re going to have to explain that one to me, extensively, over weekly dinners. You know, at the very least. At least once a week. Preferably twice, or –“

They all chuckled. “We’ll be there,” Rin promised. “Every step of the way.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it for Inheritance. I would like to thank all of you have stuck with me through this lengthy writing process. Thank you for encouraging me with your lovely, lovely comments and support. I had a blast and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Let me know!
> 
> I had plans for a potential sequel to this one (sequel-ception!) but I have decided, for my own sanity, not to write it. That is not to say I will not be writing anything at all for this little universe! Instead, I plan to write shorter stories set in the same universe to give you guys a good idea of what the lives of these kids are going to look like in the future and incorporate my own ideas in a way that is slightly more manageable than stressing over getting a new chapter out within a reasonable timeframe.
> 
> If there are specific things (events from canon or otherwise) you would like to see or find out about, send me a prompt/suggestion and I might just show you! Keeping in mind that the main pairing is KakaRin, with room for future Shizune/Anko and perhaps even Kushina/Mikoto. Other pairing suggestions are welcome but I might not use them depending on my interest and time.
> 
> Make sure to subscribe to the series or to me in order to get notifications!
> 
> My own ideas:
> 
> \- ROOT + Tenzou (a pretty angsty exploration of that little conversation kashi had with Danzou…)  
> getting together!  
> \- Uchiha massacre (1000% angst)  
> \- Team 7 growing up  
> \- Kakashi’s bi experience? (I want to, but am also very concerned with doing it justice so I’m on the fence)  
> \- Tsunade trains Kakashi and Rin  
> \- Obito & Akatsuki  
> \- Canon events  
> \- Post-canon events (Boruto who??)
> 
> Happy reading!


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